Fireside III
It is to the Village Square that the townspeople come to exchange views and thoughts on their beloved spiritual philosophy, learning from each other in kindness and wisdom. Then when their minds have been filled, they retire to the tavern on the western side of the square where they share in social discussion, learning of each other’s events and challenges, happinesses and sometimes sadnesses, too. With a mug or glass in hand, they collect in front of the great Fireplace that dominates the long wall. Benches and chairs are often filled on market day with those who have come from farther away, bringing news of events and views the local people delight in hearing.
If you are feeling disoriented by all the philosophical talk by the fountain in the Village Square, then come sit down on the bench here with us for a while just to soothe your mind and share a mug of tea or coffee. Let’s all make sure the conversation is quiet and simple, caring and thougtful, exactly the kind of talk you might have around a warm hearth, the only light filling the room coming from the fireplace.
This is the third installment in the Fireside discussion series. After we reach 900 comments, the page takes too long to load on your computer, and so we start another fresh page. To review previous discussions, we keep the old pages (Fireside I and Fireside II) which you can find under the ‘Village’ tab on the navigation bar at the top of screen under the image of the tree.
I’m sitting here, watching a bird feeder through the window.
The hungry little birds are doing their thing…
Every now and then, they catch a glimpse of something…
Some movement on this side of the glass.
Or a sound, or wind, or maybe they see their own reflection!
And off they fly! Fly, fly, fly!
Kinda like us… the images on the other side of the glass really can’t hurt
us or get to us or anything at all….. and if they could, they would just
maybe want to feed us or look at how pretty we are! And Awesome!
Yet off we fly!
Pass the whipped cream, please!
Thanks!
“Flies over to Anne and showers her with whipped cream”
pinkie jinx
Winnie – All the best to you and your daughter – difficult pregnancies are something still fresh in my mind from last year, hugs to you and her and trust that all is well…
love,
a
I am going to be a grand-father for the first time sometime in May. Sharon and I found out on Thanksgiving. It was one of the two married children of the four we proudly boast, (when we remember too) our daughter. She works from home and her boss’s is happy for her.
We all had a moment of pure sharing, Sharon and I and the kids. There were tears, and sharing stories, it was nice. As a family we had seen, but more importantly experienced a lot. I can see the future for our daughter and it is the same for us all till its not. Find Love and follow it. In the dream the journey can be hard or easy. I say if you still see yourself in the mirror, then you still have work to do.
Just put one foot in front of another, Love and Forgiveness, Love and Forgiveness. I just finished reading the posts I missed. They always help me with one thing or another in my life that needs tweaked or sometimes jut overhauled.
God bless us every one
lawrence
Katrina, wonderful story, wonderfully expressed. “Playing in the tradewinds…” And perhaps one day we will sense that we are all already playing in those same winds. Zephyrs, breezes, slight winds, carrying us aloft, sending us circling into the Heavens, swooping, curling, playing, laughing.. That’s where we really are, even while we play this dream-game here that sometimes seems tragic, sometimes lovely, and yet is always just the palest, faintest shadow of the resplendent Reality that awaits us. Just as soon as we wish to release our images and accept our Self for what It is. One magnificent Self, nothing missing, no one absent, no judgment, no punishment, no blemish.
Winnie, have a great time supporting your daughter through her pregnancy. We’ll be waiting for you with a cup of lemongrass tea in hand whenever you manage to stroll back.
Tex, you’re just a big kid! I much prefer cream projections than the other kind. Give it to me any day!
Lawrence, congratulations, my brother. Lovely to hear about the continuity of your family. It just goes to show that, as in the poem that Nina shared with us not long ago (in her emails), the long boats are working, carrying those away, and carrying those here.
Speaking of which, not long ago I saw a fascinating Brazilian movie, Nosso Lar, about ‘life’ after death and the passage of the ‘soul’. A courageous and kind film, even if the philosophy is not ACIM. Worth having a look at, and beautifully acted. It definitely gets the message across that all of our conditions here are chosen by us and part of the learning we chose on deciding to come. It also portrays a very kind image of that mythological intermediate place we go to between lives.
I visit the Village today, had a cuppa mint tea. Was not fulfilled.
Read Lawrence and Bernard. Am fulfilled.
Congratulations,Lawrence and family.
Lawrence bro – for some reason, I always thought you were already a grandfather ! (: — and that’s a compliment (:
Congrats on the 2012 arrival to your family. Wish we could meet !
Hugs.
a
Thank you Pam, I will tell them a good friend and kindred spirit sends congrats! They found out for sure it was a boy just today.
Winnie luv, you sure do know how to have fun. I will be sending my thoughts and prayers your way.
Bev, you cracked me up on 635, I knew a guy when I was in the service whose grandmother whistled for the birds in the Disney movies.
Nina, we truly are glasses half full or half empty with out each other.
a: It might be the thining grey hair and beard, or the lack of memory, that had you thinking I was a grandfather. I am a grand dad, no doubt about that.
Big hugs a: and to my village family as well. I am getting tired so good night or day, your choice.
Bernard, I liked the arm length video and practice, thanks for being you.
God bless us every one
lawrence
Love you Lawrence –
Congrats on the Baby Boy info!
I’ve been loving this song.
It’s a Christmas song.
Am I a Christian? Atheist? Agnostic? I dunno anymore.
Was “Christ” a Christian? WWJD? lol
Anyways – THIS song.
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Never really understood that before.
Happily singing away. In my happy little spot.
Wishing you hot cocoa and salmon. All of you.
Hey Tex, love you too. You know, I think as children we associate certain things with God or the spirit world, I think they have a stronger hold on us than we think.
Big Blue blew out the candles in the cabin window of this temporary dwelling, about two years into it. I know without a doubt what I am studying and why. But a song like you mention makes a connection because our our very real love for Mother/Father God.
I was a choir boy and then an alter boy, so Christmas holds a boys magic for me. The course has given a new and deeper meaning to songs and different things I read.
Hell, we ought to gett some kind of reward for beating ourselves up like this.
God bless us every one
Lawrence maan – you make me laugh (:…. “Hell, we ought to get some kind of reward for beating ourselves up like this” (:
Well, perhaps that laugh was more like a chuckle. Hmm… thanks to you I think I’ve just experienced a chuckle (:
Apropos Children’s associations…I remember a Christmas carol – the text was, “Angels descend down, hidden” but “hidden” and “into a shack” sounds alike in Norwegian – so i always wondered why the angels descended down in little shacks, and thought it might have something to do with the birth of Jesus.
And another one:
“Here comes your poor little ones” – “poor” in fashioned Norwegian sounds like “arms” – so I saw these little arms coming down from the sky and standing in front of the stable. That was what they did. This led to very strange inner stories.
I hope you have some giggles out of these ones
love
Nina
well. I don’t know about “fashioned Norwegian”, but “old-fashioned” would be correct 🙂
a, You only chuckled because you thought for a moment it might be like laughing in church. Chuckle, even the word edges you on to chuckle.
lawrence
O, for God sakes, I got post 666, if you watched all the scarey tv and movies I had, well let’s just say it should be done away with.
Katrina, sorry for your loss, but howw cool is it to have that kiss on the cheek, pat on the back kinda thing going on.
Nina, “Angel In A Sack” I think we could make some money with this idea. Too bad we are so close to Christmas.
lawrence
So the angels descended and hid in little shacks. Hmmm I think that sums up the ego way of things quite well. We are the angels and this world is a shack where we think we can hide while scavenging for crumbs waiting for something outside of us to be born to save us.
I like how the Holy Spirit part of us gives us clues even in seeming silly little kid misinterpretations of stuff.
Or maybe it is more like the ego just can’t totally obscure the truth and it still is able to be seen if looked at correctly.
Pam and Lawrence,
Now I have got yet another great image. Angels in a shack – or angels in a sack.
The last category are, my dear Lawrence, is of course put there by Santa Claus.
Jinglebellsjinglebellsangelsinasack…
Giggles to all
Nina
Nudged, repeatedly, by the urge to write, yet simultaneously wondering whether any of this writing is going to make any difference, I sit here by the Yellow and Gold background of the Village Tavern.
Things are so very different these days. After the minor epiphany of November, which seemed to have happened aeons ago, everything seems lighter and heavier, all at once. Except that I can’t truthfully say “heavier” just perhaps more “solid”. Yes, everything seems lighter and yet more solid.
The Lessons keep progressing, one slow day after another, today marked the 338th – I got the clear message today that “I shouldn’t try so hard”. I can just let it be. Just do it in the morning, and if I don’t remember through the course of the day, it’s perfectly A-OK.
And of course, several times during the Course of the day, whenever I needed it the most (or really just needed it for any reason at all), the thought “I can only be hurt by my thoughts” was there waiting for me to remember and give me some distance from the pain of that moment.
I write “pain” above, but feel none right now. A few minutes ago, as i brushed my teeth in the final preparation for bedtime, the intensity of the pain, worry and fear rolled into one would have been enough to fell me to my knees in another life.
Perhaps that’s how the Course works, it sneaks up on me (: — and for a long time nothing seems to be happening. And then one day, one moment, I realize that the things that ticked me off in the past, or would have had me churning for minutes (that felt like hours) have been reduced to spots of time so small, that I can’t even begin to measure it.
Am i in perfect health because of the Course ? No way. My muscles ache, head, neck, calves, I feel stiffness in muscles I didn’t even know I had.
But it seems to be perfectly fine. My heart seems to be more open. I judge myself less, hold myself to artificial standards of behaviour less and less, forgive myself, (if I haven’t done this or that), forgive myself for creating last-minute chaos and disturbance in my life and that of others, develop a deeper appreciation for who I truly am, and feel more comfortable in my flawed human skin, feel more relaxed on nights when I’m only going to get a few hours sleep, instead of the perpetual irritation I would feel building up in anticipation of the loss of sleep that I care so much about.
Everything seems to roll into one – from one moment to another, and each moment true for just an instant, and things change yet again into another image. Time was when I would wish I could bottle up the images, that I could ask the world to freeze, until I could understand the myriad things happening all around me. The overwhelm used to be paralyzing.
It’s still overwhelming, but the patience to witness it, and the space to let it happen are deeper now. I haven’ caught myself asking for the world to freeze for over several months now – in fact, as I write this, I can’t remember when the last time was that that particular wish was in my mind in response to the whirling of the world.
I don’t need to freeze the world anymore, because I don’t need to understand it anymore. I gave up analyzing my night-time dreams about 5-6 years ago, (if not longer), because they never made any sense anyway, and didn’t hold me as they used to about 10 years ago.
I’m starting to feel that way about the world. I can’t really say I can appreciate it’s dream-like texture yet, but everything that happens in it, seems alright with me. The finance world keeps making money, the politicians keep speaking, the people keep expecting things from the government, the criminals keep marauding and pillaging, the good keep doing good things, the idealists keep dreaming, the sportspeople keep pushing their physical limits, everything seems to roll along just the way it always has, and always will.
I don’t need to understand any of this anymore. I just need to be aware of what’s happening in my mind, because that’s where everything is happening. My fear is in my mind, my pain is there as well, my peace, my God, my life, my upsets, my stresses, everything arises in my mind, with a thought, and when the thought passes, the attendant feeling passes as well. One thought to another, bubbling along incessantly. There is nothing that is to be done about it. Nothing that can be done about it.
Perhaps I haven’t got to the stage yet where I can say that this computer is in my mind, or my wife is in my mind. These physical entities certainly seem to be outside my mind. But they don’t bother me. Their being outside of my mind has no negative effect on me.
I’ve been making “friends” with more and more ACIM material on the web. There are many precious resources available on it, and each new teacher, each new voice, brings me one step closer to experiencing that “stillness”, that peace – it feels right to me, I seem to be walking on the path I was meant to.
I’ve been missing Annie a lot these last few days. I think I should write her an email note. Perhaps just one-line. To tell her that I miss her. With no other thoughts, or additional comments. Just a clean, clear “I miss you”. Hmmm. (:
Being the procastrinator that I am, I think I’ll mull that over for a little longer. I feel the wave of judgement arise, as I label myself a “procastrinator” – in a flash, guilt starts building up, thoughts move to all the work-related things that I should have done this evening, and haven’t. (:
I”ll think I’ll get back to the earlier feeling of peace. If there’s some work-thing I haven’t done, so be it. The consequences may be dire, but so what. It just means that I’ll have a little less money in the future. Or perhaps I’ll change my tune and tomorrow rush about like a frantic chicken, clucking and flapping, trying to accomplish it in less time. Or perhaps I’ll just be calm, and look at it with no attachments, and do it then, or not (:
I’ll wait till tomorrow to find out (:
take care, my friends – all is well.
a
A, that was well worth writing down. I sensed the constriction around the judgment “procrastination” like a vise – seeing it around “you”, and recognizing there is only One of us here, appearing as many.
I miss Annie too. And then i don’t: I think of her and have her inside. And love that she feels safe enough with our love that she can just rest where she is.
I also share this stiff aching painful places – in the same places, interestingly enough. Could a bunch of us share that stuff to collectively forgive them and let go? I admit that I personally is soooooooooooo tired of the neckpain and stiffness. Still, there is time when is completely melts away in the night, where I rest in God -and then it is back to “usual.”
Good night everybody.
It is snowing on my blog the last days. That is the only place it is snowing.
Nina
A journey continues until it stops
A journey that stops is no longer a journey
A journey loses thing on its way
A journey passes through things, thing pass through it
When a journey is over, it loses itself to a place
When a journey remembers, it begins a journal
Which is a new journey about an old journey
A journey over time is different from a journey into time
An actual journey is into the future
A reflective journey is into the past
***
A journey always begins in a place called Here
Pack your bags and imagine your journey
Unpack your bags and imagine your journey is done
***
If you’re afraid of a journey, don’t buy shoes
~ Mark Strand ~
(Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More)
Dear a*, what a lovely post. “lighter and yet more solid” that describes what I have been experiencing lately also. The Course teaches by contrasting the right mind and the wrong mind and that is what I suspect is happening. All the seeming shades of grey in between are just the smokescreen of our resistance and as we stop resisting we can see the contrast more clearly with calmness.
Oh the relief of not having to understand it all anymore. This is happening more and more for me also. No longer having to incessantly figure out why he/she/I said/did/didn’t do this, that or the other. The beginnings of freedom from the cares of the world…lovely.
I love the first 2 lines of the poem Nina. For me it sums up our journey to no-where. (:
happy monday
loved all that a has shared with us … thank you … mahalo
love that lawrence is going to have a grandson … what joy and congratulations
love the snow on nina’s home page … it’s lovely floating magical snow … peaceful and quiet
love that pam knows just what to say that is kind and present and welcoming whenever any one writes anything … it’s a blessing and a gift
love that annie is following her heart and taking care of herself and is still with us and will write again one of these days … it’s all ok
love that katrina shared with us her grandmother’s freedom from her body and how well loved and supported she was through that transition
love that bernard has created this place for us to meet and share and bless one another
love that anne got us all going into the christmas spirit way early in the season and got us all singing songs and decorating
love to and for all the sharings and wishing everyone a happy monday
Been away for a few days so catching up. Nina I loved your child interpretation of the stories. The innocence is so charming. I drove by myself for many hours so had a chance to listen to the CD set of Healing, Hearing the Melody. Ken says when we cry we are crying for our loss of innocence and that fits for me.
a. I also gave up interpreting my night dreams about 6 years ago (although I did it for so many years in the morning as I wake up I’m always recalling the dream I just had). Probably symbolic of the course which states that is what we are doing ie mentally reviewing what’s already gone by.
Dosen’t matter, I am where I am and so be it.
Hugs and candy canes to everyone. (:
love that bev is here too! and with hugs and candy canes in abundance! mahalo … this monday just keeps getting happier
and oh my goodness of course …
love michele’s thanksgiving sharings and her ability to maintain peace share it with us … reminding us that somehow it all works out
and winnie, well she gets extra hugs and candy canes to share with her daughter … love our winnie and her incredible adventures
Basking in the warming glow of good tidings expressed within and felt within like….
Lawrence’s family gathered at Thanksgiving and being truly being with each other…really safe and warm and happy and then the news of the very first grandchild on the way. Now we know he’s a he. I just can’t tell you enough L…how I drank deep of the connection I’ve always sensed around how your family accepts, loves and appreciates each other.
Nina and Tex Anne sprinkling our pages and thoughts with swirls of Christmas songs with lots of angles on the angels and the lore
a….laughing as I begin because at first, after seeing the posts about yours, I scrolled up and then down to see how long it was and was sooo happy to see there was plenty to dig into. You describe your November lightness as a minor epiphany and I think it’s that side of you that deserves Lawrence’s award that had you laughing with the Michael Jackson song title. ( I’m being playful and tricky clue ish here) Anyway….I got a great deal of satisfaction from it and dang….just like Pam and Bev too said….It’s great not needing to understand the scenario’s that unfold. The detachment from it paired at the same time with the gusto we enjoy in our course aha’s in the various forms we find them in, feeling like we believe our saving graces are really always available and we are never alone.
I quess I think our saving graces are knowing our only function here is forgiveness and the purpose we give our movies and the gift of our companionship with each other. I too feel Annie in my heart and have thought yeah…will send an email letting her know she’s solid among us.
Closing with gratitude always to Bernard and Zafu who is a beautiful scribe of our village who always uplifts and blesses as you all do each in your own distinct flavor sort of way.
Love to everyone,
Michele
check out today’s lesson!!
here’s some of the words a bit rearranged:
BE GLAD TODAY!! BE GLAD!!
THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ANYTHING BUT JOY AND FREEDOM AND THANKS TODAY!!
TODAY WE AWAKE IN HEAVEN AND IN THE HEART OF LOVE!!
THIS DAY IS HOLY!!!
Miracles fall like drops of healing rain
from Heaven on a dry and dusty world,
where starved and thirsty creatures come to die.
When I was a kid, I had to memorize Portia’s speech from Merchant of Venice —
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blessed.
It blesses him who gives and him who takes.
Be glad. I am grateful for this tribe
Me too, Katrina, me too (:
ps. Michele, I was just thinking of you the other day and imagining you across the water from Fisherman’s Wharf (where I spent the last week of October), and at that moment, your post above came through ! (:
I have many other messages for Pam, Nina, Zafu, Bev, but I think I’m being nudged to go take my morning shower, and get to work now ! More later,
love,
a
hello dear family
I got this poem today:
Yes
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out — no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
~ William Stafford ~
(The Way It Is)
All you hypocrites and liars
In the temple seeking gain
All you senators and lawyers
With your motives to explain
All you victims and you heroes
Your petitions to complain
All you murderers and martyrs
On the fields where you lay slain
On the just and unjust
Alike it doth rain
And the quality of mercy is not strained
Lyrics by Michelle Shocked
Katrina, I am glad you are posting more. and feel I haven’t been much of a friend. You are a special lady and very much appreciated. After reading your post I was singing “And the quality of mercy is not strained” and I couldn’t remember who sang or wrote the song. I of course figured it out and thus the song lyrics above. I think either here in the Village or in the Monastery I posted about her. The CD I have is very good, but I haven’t heard any of her other songs.
Michelle, It is cool you are posting more as well. I wish I could write as well as you, you posts flow with continuity and charm. The “B” day horoscope you said seems to fit. I can’t tell you how many folks have told me the same. I think horoscopes are in fact a snapshot of the dream as it is at any given time. At the time of your birth, stars are in a certain place, planets are in a certain orbit etc. So, as far as the dream is concerned to me, it is as real or unreal as the rest of it. By the way, Thank you for sharing your thoughts concerning the baby news and our family, it was very kind of you to do so.
a, Your post was a walk through my own mind and many others, What a trip we are on, armed with the knowledge that we are One, with only glimpses of what that really means. But to steal a line from a great movie, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”. I have gotten to the point that what I so long for, I know I already process. All is a dream to me, I no longer have to convince myself that it is so. The funny thing is, dream or no dream it doesn’t make anything any easier, at least for me that is, and It changes nothing.
I am a singer in a one man band, song lyrics again but I don’t know from where. I swear though I hear a a sweet harmony from time to time from a multitude of voices that become a blessing and if only for a moment I feel close to home.
This is our busiest time of year, the flea market is closed to spring but an online store with about 1400 collectibles etc. is keeping us too busy. We are not getting rich but we are keeping a roof over our heads and having fun.
I know I am all over the place, but that is me. I kinda like it, when it isn’t driving me crazy! Nina, like I like to say, it is what it is. And, sometines it is pretty cool.
Love you all, God bless us every one
lawrence
Lawrence, I would like that website-address to your collectibles. Please send it-
hugs
Nina
re 686: I do too Bernard.
More beauty to my beautiful family:
If prayer would do it
I’d pray.
If reading esteemed thinkers would do it
I’d be halfway through the Patriarchs.
If discourse would do it
I’d be sitting with His Holiness
every moment he was free.
If contemplation would do it
I’d have translated the Periodic Table
to hermit poems, converting
matter to spirit.
If even fighting would do it
I’d already be a blackbelt.
If anything other than love could do it
I’ve done it already
and left the hardest for last.
~ Stephen Levine ~
(Breaking the Drought)
Yes, Lawrence. Please post your website here at the Village, be my guest. I’m sure we’d all love to browse through your shop.
Thanking you all deeply from the heart for all your love and kind wishes to each other. You bring the gold to the yellow on these pages, you bring the sunshine that lights and warms this golden place.
Thank You Nina for asking me for the website-address for our online shop. And, thank you Good Mayor Bernard for offering the permission to do so. I hope you and Pat aren’t working too hard. Sharon and I got into this collecting thing late in life.
We are limited on what we can buy do to lack of funds, but we do the best we can. It started out a few years back with just a few items and then one day we woke up and had over a thousand. There was a big learning curve as we had to learn a lot about all different kinds of things.
It is in our blood now so there are not enough hours in the day. Sharon and I have different tastes so it makes for an interesting mix. We buy at auctions and sometimes some very lame stuff, but people buy it. Some things will sit for over a year and then someone buys it.
So, it has been a God send and keeps us afloat. It would take about twice the number of things to bring a good yearly income, but time fly’s when your having fun.
You can just google Lost And Found Vintage Treasures and our shop will come up. I was thinking of Winnie, we just sent a large painting to Australia and It arrived safe. We were sweating it out.
I miss you too Annie, hope all is well with you and yours.
Love you all, God bless us every one
lawrence
Dear ACIM family, it’s been a while since you heard from me but I’m still here !
I noticed that you have been sending poems so here is one from me that I read recently and that touched my heart:
I saw a wise man dying of starvation
Leaves fall in the slightest wind in december
And I saw a wealthy man
beating his cook
for some mistake with the spices.
Since then, I Lalla , have been waiting
for my love of this place to leave me.
written by: Lalla, 14th Century Indian mystic
Love and hugs from: Hedda
Big hugs for you Hedda, So glad you dropped by with the nifty poem.
…off to google Lalla…..(:
Joining Pam in a big Hug to you Hedda, so glad to see you here again. Where do you live Hedda?…off to google Lalla, Lawrence and Sharon’s nifty site and Bernard’s find… Anita Moorjani
Love to all
Wow wow wow!!!!! Wonderful site with treasures within Lawrence! Happy Satisfied Customers! So cool to see them addressing Sharon in their Thank You posts. Funny I was thinking I’d like Mic Jagger and his girlfriend the dress designer L’Wren Scott to be hip to your site. Vintage has it’s own all across the board kind of aficionados. Beautifully done!
Michele, I live in Finland , welcome anytime !!! 🙂
Waiting on my son and his girlfriend, to go cut down a tree with us. It seems like yesterday the four little wittigs and our labs would run amok and somehow make it home alive and happy. Thanks all for your kind words concerning our site. I list the art and books and bazaar things and Sharon everything else. She also writes the people and does the billing. They don’t know that I exist and neither do I.
I have to find the saw and other pertinent things we will need, and rearrange furniture etc. The funny thing is this is the the last few days of listing new things, so we need to chain ourselves to the computers and keep working, yet we have a hundred other things to do. It sounds like I am complaining, but I feel so blessed in so many ways. The Good friends here in the village, and the silent ones whose love is felt always, and returned to you always.
I dogged a lot of bullets over the years, so at sixty, still mobile and still with half a brain I am truly blessed. I got up early and this is the first I have sat down. It feels good but I must return to the work at hand. I really like going through all the Christmas boxes we have. You know looking for the lights etc. After spending a year in the cellar it is time to shine. And I guess it is time for me to hit the road. We have had 33 Christmases together so you can imagine the boxes(:
Big Hugs to All
God bless us every one
lawrence
Lawrence, where are you hitting the road too?
They don’t know that I exist and neither do I.
:::giggles:::
Why am I reaching again for the brushes?
When I paint your portrait, God,
nothing happens.
But I can choose to feel you.
At my senses’ horizon
you appear hesitantly,
like scattered islands.
Yet standing here, peering out,
I’m all the time seen by you.
The choruses of angels use up all of heaven.
There’s no more room for you
in all that glory. You’re living
in your very last house.
All creation holds its breath, listening within me,
because, to hear you, I keep silent.
~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~
(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
Two, three (or more) years after coming across the old acimmonk site, I finally begin to see the beauty of Ken and his teachings !
So I thought I would write a few brief lines tonight, as the image of him reading a beautiful passage from Lesson 107 on tonights’ video selection at “the remembered song” is fresh in my now-softened and open mind.
I always used to “cringe” a bit, inwardly, whenever I read of the devotion shown to Ken by those whom he has helped so much (Jamie, Bernard, Winnie) – I couldn’t speak freely of that slight twinge I used to feel, as I would never want to offend their love for Ken. And yet, part of me used to always favor “Gary”, since he was the one who made the course accessible to me.
I see now that it was another piece of resistance in my mind. “Judging” as I did against Ken(even though it was very mild) was another spot in my mind where love couldn’t enter. or at least not enter fully.
And watching tonight’s video, I felt my heart reach out to him, I saw through, or caught a glimpse, a slightly deeper glimpse of his Love, as he teaches day-in and day-out at his beloved foundation. I can love Ken, and I can love Gary, and my love can continue to grow.
I am grateful to Jamie, to Ken, to Bernard, and to everyone here for this opportunity to experience, and to heal.
Love,
a
My, brother you take me from my work, with your above post. Thank You! As I write this there is a swat team of men outside cutting branches from about a half dozen very large trees from around our home.
They are from the electric company and they don’t want the branches to fall on the utility lines. But no matter their intention, the tree will be better and stronger for it. The lines that bring light and power to the house will be protected and able to share their life giving warmth etc.
Point I am making, up for interpretation(: One of my fathers favorite sayings was, “Your a Day Late and a Dollar Short!” That is how I felt about my study of ACIM. I found ACIM through Gary and learned much at the DU sight. Then after a few years, I left. It seemed a good fit for me, but I got few responses.
I found the Monastery and felt that I was being judged, from the beginning. Not by Jamie, but by some of my fellow seekers. I came to the Village late, and then took a year off, so I don’t feel I contributed much of anything. Day late Dollar Short.
My problem dearest a*, is I don’t want a particular teacher, or a different path, I just want peace. I love my fellow travellers and have a hard time putting them above or below me in terms of progress etc.
I may never meet any real or imagined goals I might have. But, I have met you, and other seekers of the truth who put so much of themselves in sharing what they know and or are learning that I bask in the truth of it all, and learn something new everyday.
I feel at this point in my life, I will be satisfied with the spirit behind the words in big blue. I have felt the obvious love Ken has for us all. I know Gary is spending his life spreading the word and teachings of the other good book.
But, I feel the words and the spirit behind the words are mine to interpret. I can only do this by study and sharing. Those that share their wisdom with me, and those that don’t have a clue and could care less, are equally my teachers.
Like you my brother, I am grateful for as you so aptly put it, this opportunity to experience, and to heal.
Love ya little brother
God bless us every one
lawrence