Consider the lilacs!

“I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.”

― Anne Lamott

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I choose

not to be grim

I choose this day

not to put my energy into whatever is wrong

a friend long bald

used to joke that aging men only had so much testosterone

and if I wanted to waste mine growing hair

well, that was ok with him

there is only so much time

only so much energy

I am not going to spend mine

focusing on,

carrying,

failure

frustrations

grudges

anger

I am not going to spend it

“fighting sin”

in my life

or anyone else’s

I want to be light enough to dance

joyful enough to smile -- and mean it

I want to be full enough

of the sacred

to live it

to be it

the lilac blooms on the table

do not fight to be lilacs

they are so what they are

they just sit there

beautiful

fragrant

I want to be like them

The world Narrowed Down

No belief is neutral.

Every one has the power to dictate

Each decision your make.

                                Gifts from A Course in Miracles

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misty morning

heavy sky dripping from the branches

the world narrowed down

to trees disappearing in the gray

there is no evidence

of mountains soaring

skies blue

no trace of the sun

only this

grayness

then clouds part

and the world is restored

in all its vast beauty

some days

O Sacred one

my world is narrow

squeezed and compressed

by thinking that cannot contain

the grandeur of Sacred love

I can only see vaguely

into the mist

and so I judge

and despair

until the greyness

is dispelled

by one wild beam of sunlight

grace

illusions, delusions, and more

You cannot perpetuate an illusion about another

Without perpetuating it about yourself.

                                                Gifts from a Course in Miracles, Vaughan & Walsh

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overcome

overcome evil

overcome evil with good

good

how do we create good?

how do we create evil?

it becomes all about comparisons

I am good

They are bad

I am righteous

they are evil

I am god’s beloved

they are god’s enemies

we create a world of contrasts and formulas

a world of black and white

it is a fragile world

hanging tenuously

and held in place

only by our ability

to hold on to our illusions

the illusion that we represent the God of love

as we fling spittle laden words of hate at another

the illusion that we are righteous

“Warriors of God”

when we give away guns to draw young men to church

the illusion that whatever weaknesses or faults we have

are not important

compared to the flaws of “them”

the illusion that God is for us

and hates everyone we hate

it is false

this dichotomy

this belief that they can only be out 

if we are in

they can only be damned 

if we are blessed

they can only be wrong 

if we are right

the truth

is that we are all in this together

all of us

doing the best we can

moment by moment

the truth emerges only when

we let go of our illusions

love is birthed

only when we can drop the fundamental delusion

that we are separate

and remember that we are one

one

in sin

one in fear

one in failure

one in success

one in joy

one in the sacred

one in grace

one