The Still Point of the Pandemic World
Blog Archive - 2020
by Dr. Susan Nettleton
April 11, 2020
As we move deeper into Spring 2020, the Covid 19 Pandemic continues to spread throughout America and across the planet. We have had weeks of updates, statistics, policy changes, medical advice and disturbing news. We have also had our collective moments of celebration, inspiring heroics, and brilliant humor to lighten our burden.
Sometimes it feels, as someone put it, an "info-demic" arrived with the pandemic. And it brings a sense of being bombarded with digitalized voices shouting to be heard above everyone else.
So it is with cautious hesitation that I add one more voice with this Face Book page for The Hillside Source web site (hillsidesource.com). It is my hope that this page can offer you a point of spiritual focus during the pandemic.
This Easter weekend will be unlike any the world has experienced, as at least 1 in 4 Americans, along with millions around the globe remain under 'Shelter in Place' orders due to the pandemic. There are so many different ways to experience this slowing down of modern life, this standstill with all its closed doors...
In stillness, the inner door to the spiritual life opens wide. (Susan Nettleton)
April 11, 2020
Building on the legacy of Hillside Community Church in Albuquerque, The Hillside Source aspires to be a resource for 21st century spirituality as it is being defined through time and events throughout this century. Certainly, the Covid 19 Pandemic will profoundly shape this century in ways we cannot currently foresee.
The future is built on the past, shaped by the events of an ever-changing present and the visionary realm pulling life forward into the new. The healing of this Pandemic involves all three. We look to past pandemics for ways in which people coped, survived, and society changed. We look to the future for prevention, technology, discoveries that have yet to actualized. We stretch creativity and imagination, sometimes fearfully, but to heal, we envision positive outcomes. In this ever-changing present, we make do. We adapt. We use whatever skills we have, while we learn new skills.
We each have our personal difficulties, but we are all under the weight of a collective pressure.
That pressure is lightened if we have learned how to stop now and then. Stop and let go. Stop and rest. The pressure is lightened even more, if we can give way to silence and stillness,trusting life, trusting something greater than our personal and collective struggles
(Susan Netteton)
For further thoughts on Trusting Life (from our website hillsidesource.com), visit the web addresses below.
from Easy Does It by Larry Morris:
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/28/trust?rq=trust
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/28/letting-go-is-trust?rq=trust
April 12, 2020
Easter and Passover bring a surge of spiritual energy freely available to all no matter what your religious or non-religious background may be. This energy arises from the devotional celebrations of the millions across the planet that cultural and spiritual traditions, adapted and refined across centuries of time. This year, there is a rupture in traditions with the call to social distancing. But hearts connect regardless, whether alone in stillness, or through technology and virtual gatherings. Regardless of external circumstances, and practices that come and go,that which is true and real for us remains.
From Poems on the Way by Larry Morris:
God has
so gently guided us
this far
our tender hearts
can only stay open
and let God
guide us
all the way
home.
Absorbed in inner freedom
we forget
how not to let go
and God sweeps us
forward, pushing us through
the doorway of
our small doubt
into vast expanding openness
one at last with
the innermost
fabric of the universe.
April 13, 2020
As Easter weekend draws to a close, I am offering as perhaps a beginning point for meditation, one more poem by Larry Morris. It may not conform to what you have learned as meditation breath technique, but to me rings true as the body's natural response to a sudden Spiritual encounter.
Heavenly Moment
When is a Man
like a church?
When is a church like a river?
The free flowing
Light of God
spilling over all boundaries
dissolving all barriers
blesses us, gives us
Peace. Release.
The Peace we breathe in
in great gulps through the mouth
and are grateful.
Larry Morris
For further thoughts on Trusting Life (from our website hillsidesource.com), visit the web addresses below.
from Easy Does It by Larry Morris:
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/28/trust?rq=trust
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/28/letting-go-is-trust?rq=trust
April 14, 2020
This morning, even before my morning tea, I took a look at the news across the globe,
the various warnings on a likely 2nd surge of Covid 19 and seasonal return, as well as the stories on the latest storm that hit the Eastern and Southern states. I again felt the gravityof the Pandemic. Gravity is the word because it pulls us back to the Earth, It reinforces our weightiness.
It seems to me, that the primary thing that this page can offer right now are reminders and support to encourage you to find that space--let's also call it that point of stillness-- that brings us back to the spiritual essence of life. That essence, whatever you choose to call it, is the Source of life, all it's array, phenomena, all it's forces, energy and activity, all it's mystery, wonder, awe and truth. All that is you and the life you are living now. We can view this source through the lens of science, the world of fact and evidence based logic, or we can feel this source through our heart of hearts with tones of surrender, reverence and the sacred. Better yet (but tricky to walk), is the path that is woven of both.
The amazing paradox is that regardless of what you believe, or how heavy, restless, anxious, fearful, sad, or angry you may feel, regardless of loneliness, wealth (or lack) or health status, the "still point" is ultimately found through you and within you, even in a pandemic. Maybe especially in a time like a pandemic, when familiar rhythms and structures are shaken. When there is real threat to human lives. Finding that space within is not just a matter of being stuck in the house alone with yourself or your companions. Granted it can unexpectedly descend upon you in the most likely of circumstances. But the conscious turning toward It, in stillness and quiet, as meditation, as prayer, is akin to extending an invitation to meet the depth of that spiritual essence within you. A biblical quote circles my mind (James 4:8)--
"Draw near to God and God will draw near to you."
(Susan Nettleton)
April 15, 2020
Another paradox of this point of stillness, is that descriptive words fail us, they may give us a sense of stillness, a sense of silent communion, but never the transcendent whole of it. Just as there is always a certain irony in the attempt to write or speak (let alone teach) about spiritual silence, so too, "stillness" transcends words. But we try. (Susan Nettleton)
Poet Walt Whitman (19th century, Song of Myself)
There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me..
I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid,
It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.
Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on...
Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is Happiness.
In Whitman's life time, he experienced times of economic upheaval, a resurgence of the Cholera Pandemic (1849) in New York City where over 5,000 died, and the American Civil War during which he devoted himself to carrying for wounded soldiers in the hospitals of Washington D.C.
April 16, 2020
The construct of a "Still Point" is exquisitely described by T.S. Eliot in these lines from the 20th century poem "Burnt Norton". Written in London in 1935, the poem is itself a meditation. The remaining three poems of the Four Quartets were written during WWII and the German blitz bombing of Britain. The collection is described as an expansion of the spiritual vision of Eliot's early masterpiece, "The Waste Land". The "Waste Land" was written in 1921, following the devastation of WWI (1914-1918) and the Spanish Flu Pandemic (1918-1920). Eliot was living in London throughout the wars and the pandemic. During that Pandemic, over 50 million people died worldwide, some speculate the mortality was twice that. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain. This flu virus was hardest on healthy young adults between the ages of 20 and 30. Eliot was 29 in 1918.
These lines imply that memory and time are clues to the transcendent experience. See where they lead you...
from T.S. Eliot (20th century, Four Quartets: Burnt Norton)
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
Whatever role you may fulfill in the society, in this time and place, in this pandemic, "that still point" remains regardless of upheaval. It silently awaits your recognition. (Susan Nettleton)
April 17, 2020
What our communities, country and really the world at large asks of us right now is our help in slowing down the Covid 19 Pandemic. By slowing the Pandemic we diminish its damage and tragedy and do our part in eventually eliminating it. We do this in various forms, depending on our role. For those in healthcare, public works, law enforcement, the food industry and deliveries, and other public service, this means taking sometimes grave risks with our own health, but always means taking essential precautions for self protection, self-care and supporting co-workers in doing the same. As we know from the news, with shortages, this is not always possible. For the rest of us, it means staying at home, some working remote, others managing ourselves and families, and for many it means making frightening financial sacrifices. Staying healthy remains the mission because the our health impacts the health of others. This is public health at its most urgent. Public health can be defined as the field of health science that is concerned with safeguarding and improving the physical, mental, and social well-being of the community as a whole. * The CDC website adds "It can be defined as what 'we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy' (Institute of Medicine, 1988)."
All this is to say that taking the time to stop, turn inward, and quiet the mind and emotional nature through meditation, prayer and/or other spiritual practice is an act of public health. It's not that the time of lock down requires you spend your day as if you were in a monastery with rules and ritual requirements. Rather, it is that a time of "stillness" slows down the agitated mind with it's repetitive non-productive chatter, opening us to a well spring of wisdom and intelligence, or perhaps guidance and insight, and yes, creative inspiration that may well move us all forward. (Susan Nettleton)
*(Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health)
April 18, 2020
That there are physical, emotional and mental health benefits to meditation is now well documented, although the mechanisms in the brain and body are not all clearly understood.
Many large medical institutions as well as universities now have meditation programs as part of their wellness departments. So meditating to improve health (and general performance) has integrated into modern culture. However, this has happened by secularizing meditation. Most of the research that has been done on meditation has eliminated the spiritual component which is much more difficult to objectively define and measure in medical research. We can reap certain benefits with "mindfulness" training for example, but that does not necessarily fulfill our deepest needs, nor our capacity for heartfelt spiritual nourishment and a way of "relating the mind to the mystery that something exists rather than nothing and creating awe and a connection to the sacred" through the mystical. ( Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth)
There are thousands of meditation techniques, but in a Pandemic that disrupts the entire planet, spend time with one that brings you the deepest peace. (Susan Nettleton)
For more thoughts on meditation, follow the link below to our website on Turning Inward aspart of Spiritual Practice.
https://hillsidesource.com/turninginward
If you are intrigued by the scientifically proven benefits of meditation, here is a light-hearted, short video which simplifies the effect meditation has on the human brain.
April 19, 2020
For a lovely Sunday practice, try your personalized version of the metta meditation.
Once you get the basic idea, you can insert your own loving relationships, as well as connections of conflict, and add other layers that build the practice, such as your family, neighborhood, city, state, country, animals and environment, the world and beyond. While the practice as presented is from the Buddhist tradition and a meditation on Loving Kindness, to me it is of an integration of meditation, forgiveness and affirmative prayer. A powerful gift to our current Pandemic world.
(Susan Nettleton)
April 20, 2020
While meditation (in its many forms) is the mainstay practice that leads us into the depth of spirituality, sooner or later we encounter blocks to deepening meditation. Whether we realize it or not, we come up against our own resistance. This is what is often referred to as the "ego", but that can be confusing, because the "ego" is defined differently in varying fields of study. Let's just put it this way: our sense of ourself as an independent, self operating, separate individual is threatened and avoids the conscious recognition of another reality: We are an aspect of the whole of life, and the Source of life, with no independent separate existence.
In a sense, both realities are true, depending on your reference point. Like zooming in on a text, till one letter--lets use "X" as the example-- expands to the whole of the screen, it appears to be singular, self standing, highly significant, but while zooming out, we see that "x" as a tiny yet necessary part in the shared context of all the letters that make up words, and sentences, and paragraphs, together building a complex narrative with an entirely different meaning and purpose.
As we approach the conscious awareness of discovering this phenomena of self (like "x") and Self (like "X"), we are beset with resistance and blocks, both internal and external. Moving beyond resistance and blocks becomes part of the meditative process.
With the Pandemic dominating activity, emotions and thoughts across the planet, it is realistically more difficult to settle into stillness. On the other hand, we are suddenly, collectively, more aware than ever before how our lives are intertwined with each other, whether we are focussed on our household, our immediate neighborhood, or the struggles of other countries around the globe. That alone is a powerful spiritual realization.
There's an added spiritual boost that comes when you realize that while you meditate or do other spiritual practices, many others worldwide are also settling into their practice as well. An NIH study in 2017 found that 14.2% of America's adult population practice some type of meditation. That's 42,600,000 people in this country, how much more in the world? Millions, staggered through the world's time zones.
You are never alone in your time of meditation and spiritual practice. (Susan Nettleton)
April 21, 2020
After a week of gloomy skies and rain where I am staying in Southern California, last Tuesday the sun reappeared bringing balmy spring weather. I took a walk around the block with my family and my mask (now required here). It was glorious weather; the air had never seemed so fresh and the San Gabriel mountain loomed with crisp sharpness. In fact I marveled at how clearly I could see the mountain trees from the empty corner parking lot where I stood. My thought was that the rain must have dispersed the gray mists that often shroud the mountains, but my daughter reminded me that what we were seeing was the atmospheric effect of lockdown. Around the world there has been been reports of similar refreshed landscapes as well as the re-emergence of forgotten sounds--and animals-- as both air and noise pollution have plummeted, while city after city has gone on lockdown and ground and air traffic have nearly stopped.
There seems to be a reciprocal dance between the Pandemic crisis and our rapidly changing environment. Research and debate of global environmental changes in recent decades have raised concern that modern ecological changes have and will continue to increase the spread of diseases, contributing to pandemics. The changes that have altered animal habitats and animal/human interaction are of particular concern. On the other hand, we suddenly and unexpectedly see this magical phenomena in different locations--improved air quality, return of natural sound, and wild animals exploring city streets--nature re-asserting itself. The long term significance of the positive environmental effects of rapid lockdowns and quarantines in 2020 will continue to be documented, researched and debated for years to come. The clean air and bird songs may disappear quickly when lockdowns have past. Yet right now, the Pandemic is giving powerful feedback on the possibility of real environmental recovery and a glimpse of what that recovery may require on a personal and collective level. The interweavings of nature are complex (and human beings, contrary to what we may think are an aspect of nature, not separate entities). The story is far from complete.
On the eve of Earth Day 2020, it seems ripe for spiritual, meditative reflection.(Susan Nettleton)
April 22, 2020
In recognition of Earth Day, this poem by Larry Morris was written for an Earth Day event in Albuquerque in 1992. but it carries a message of hope and faith for today.
And for another affirmative thought for today, again from Larry Morris, follow the link.
April 23, 2020
In early April, I remembered my not-quite-4 year-old grandson's mini-cruiser stroller, parked somewhere outside. It was a toddler sized red convertible, with a workable steering wheel, a horn, and engine sounds. I had given it to him for his 1st birthday and he had loved it dearly, proudly"cruising" through the neighborhood. But after a move and the ensuing changes of twin baby sisters and new birthday toys, it was inconspicuously weathering out in the yard. My thought was that the sisters were ready to take a spin and it would be fun for him to rediscover the car too, while dealing with all the disappointments of the quarantine--no school fun, no play with friends, no parks or restaurants or visitors. So together we ventured out and began to clean it up. He was very excited to see it sparkle again and happily headed down the driveway, steering with me pushing the handle. But when he pushed the horn and engine buttons, nothing happened.
He was distraught. For him, if the sounds weren't working, the whole thing was ruined. There was a brief time of hope while his dad put in new batteries, but that collapsed when the buttons failed to respond. He was despondent. I tried to explain that we had left in uncovered outside and in all the rain we had been having, the wires and battery connections must have gotten wet and just didn't work. But the car could still be fun. He thought about this and then with a wounded spirit looked up and said woefully, "The rain did it on purpose."
I had to digest that for a minute. It was so innocent (and classic "ideas of reference" which is a stage of childhood cognitive development). I offered him the adult reality that, "the rain doesn't care about your car one way or another, the rain's job is to make water for the trees and plants, and for animals and people to drink. But water and batteries just don't mix well."
It struck me though, that in the extreme stress of the pandemic and the "novel Covid 19 virus" how people can easily regress to ideas of reference, over-personalizing events and interpreting them through the lens of "this is happening because of me and my life", or "this is directed at me personally", whether it is your job, or finances, or living situation, or social distancing, or the reaction of friends and family as they too struggle to adapt--the sense that all the changes your are asked to weather are a personal imposition on you. Or it can appear as feeling abandoned by God, or a spiritual test directed personally to you.
Our distorted beliefs on many levels are blocks to meditation and peace. Throughout the centuries, humans have found meaning in painful and overwhelming situations, but to discern life-enhancing meaning and inner direction, we need an open heart and an open mind. (By the way, another week passed and the wires actually dried; the sounds have returned along with the joy. Susan Nettleton)
April 24, 2020
The poetic spirit can lift us beyond both our childlike self-preoccupied, over-personalization and our mature adult rational interpretation of events, to another, transcendent reality. Poetic magical moments become mystical moments. When you have trouble settliing in meditation, reading spiritual poetry as a kind of warmup exercise is one way to move past resistance and blocks.
Here, Mary Oliver has yet another view of rain. (than yesterday's post)
https://www.best-poems.net/mary_oliver/last_night_the_rain_spoke_to_me.html
April 25, 2020
The April new moon has initiated the holy month of Ramadan in Islam. Over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide will move through the month with spiritual focus and acts of purification that include fasting from sunrise to sunset, prayer, spiritual reflection, acts of charity and community. Many, if not most, will be adapting practices to lockdowns and social distancing this year. In honor of this Holy Month, I offer this poem on the joys of fasting, by the 13th century Persian poet and Islamic scholar, Rumi.
"Fasting" by Jelaluddin Rumi
"There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox
is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you
run up the steps in front of you.
When you fast, good habits gather like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give it
to some illusion and lose your power,
but even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing
out of the ground, pennants flying above them.
A table descends to your tents, spread with other food,
better than the broth of cabbages."
Gentle fasting is yet another way to move past blocks in meditation. However, unless you are in a culture that brings support and wisdom to your fast, this is not the best time to experiment with fasting. Many of us are already feeling emotionally deprived. Grocery shopping is difficult and maintaining nutrition is essential to maintaining health. Along with this ancient spiritual practice though, there is also the idea of choosing to fast or refrain from certain behaviors, or specific kinds of thoughts, words, or patterns of relationship. It can also be healing to periodically fast from the news. Fasts are more useful when you give yourself a specific time-frame as a way of condensing the experience, in order to gain insight and not get caught in an unrealistic demand to force yourself to change forever. As Rumi puts it, first we give up, then we discover the "other food", the mystery of spiritual nourishment. (Susan Nettleton)
For thoughts on Fasting from Worry by Larry Morris, follow the link:
April 26, 2020
For this Sunday's post, I point you to a March article from our website, written by monthly blogger and story-teller, Jack Correu. Jack's profile and blog, "Musings from the Little Shack", are found under our "Spirituality, Disability, and Aging" section in the general resource block called "Healing and Wholeness". This particular article was written as the Pandemic began to spread through the U.S. in March. Jack reminds us of two key spiritual principle that are relevant to the stress and uncertainty of lockdown: the need for courage and the need for play. And pushing past our resistance. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/little-shack-stands-tall?rq=stand%20tall
(NOTE: The story" Little Shack Plays" was written before social distancing mandates. With all the discussion of transitioning out of lockdowns, as a former physician, I feel compelled to caution you to maintain social distancing. If you are on lockdown alone, there are countless ways to to interact with others through computer and phone games and creative projects. In Hinduism, there is the idea of "Lila", all of creation is Divine Play; the creative process itself is play.)
April 27, 2020
Late last Saturday night, close to midnight, I went outside with my daughter to help her with her car. She had just realized a car light was still on, so we went to take a look. We fixed the light and locked the car. As we came up the driveway I looked upward and saw a full, bright,
Big Dipper. I had to stop to just stand in awe saying, "What a clear night. I haven't seen the Big Dipper in years. In fact, I just realized, I haven't even seen stars much here (on the periphery of Los Angeles)." Once again, my daughter responded with the recognition that the night's constellation was visible because of the lockdown and reduced traffic and smog. "Of course", I said, "that has to be it." I stood spellbound by the sight and was momentarily transported back in time to memories of stargazing on summer nights with friends as a child, and learning the constellations while camping with family at state parks. My thoughts were not on beauty that has been lost, but beauty that I so easily recovered with a trip up and down my driveway. On lockdown.
The beauty is always there.
It is a familiar analogy: The stars that always glimmer in the sky, both day and night, regardless of atmospheric conditions or cloud cover or sunlight can only be visible to the human eye on clear dark nights. In the same way, the beauty of life, it's underlying peace, wholeness, goodness and care, we name God, or Spirit, or Love or other words that fall short, is always present, but hidden, under clouded layers of emotions, ideas and judgements and belief systems.
We meditate to clear our vision and understanding. We discover a calm, a peace within.. It has always been there and can be found again and again and again. When we are calm, then we can turn to the outside world.
One affirmation that I have recommended to people in times of fear and anxiety, as a kind of mantra for navigating overwhelming situations, is simply, "Calmness is Power". The calmness is not just the ability to physically relax, it is the calmness that you build on, uncovered through the meditation process. It's a good one to remember this week. (Susan Nettleton)
April 28, 2020
It's time to talk about forgiveness. It's always a daunting task to bring up forgiveness in the face of trauma and loss, especially with situations that are really beyond our personal control. But forgiveness is a powerful healing spiritual principle and it is a practice that can open our minds and hearts to deeper spiritual experience. Forgiveness changes us. Forgiveness changes relationships and situations. Forgiveness brings freedom. Those of you who have been a part of the teachings at Hillside for many years know the forgiveness process, but you may not have opened that door in light of the pandemic. For those of you who are not as familiar with forgiveness as a process of healing and release, I encourage you to give it a try. While some writers and teachers suggest a kind of blanket, all purpose forgiveness, we have always approached it as highly personalized, and individual. It's not something that can be forced on yourself or others. When you are ready to forgive, you discover you know how. In a extraordinary life event like a world wide pandemic with weeks and weeks of lockdown, social distancing, potentially life-threatening illness, economic threat, and daily descriptions of the suffering of others, it seems too big a load to lift through forgiveness. Yet, perhaps the world is waiting for forgiveness. You are the only one who can offer your forgiveness. And only when you are ready.
Rather than getting overloaded by the complexity of all the facets and undercurrents of the pandemic, I suggest taking this piecemeal. Start with your immediate situation and what is bothersome to you personally. See how willing you are to forgive that aspect of your life right now. See how the emotional and visceral threads run and what impact that particular thing, person, annoyance, difficulty...whatever it is... is having on your days. Fully and freely forgive it (or them), let it go, in affirmation of a greater good Don't let it rob you of your peace. Let it go. (Susan Nettleton)
For more thoughts on forgiveness, follow the link to this article by Larry Morris from our website.
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/26/forgiveness
April 29, 2020
Meditation remains the bedrock practice for finding peace and resilience is this extraordinary time of uncertainty and rapidly changing events. Forgiveness is a spiritual practice that really targets our emotional nature and the judgmental aspect of our thinking colored by feeling states. As such it complements meditation. In the long term process of meditation, we become more aware of the range of emotions we are capable of as we become aware of our subjective points of view. Along with the background of the mind's processing of daily events, memories (sometimes forgotten, sometimes repressed) challenge our spiritual focus and disrupt our peace. If you meditate daily, there are times when it is difficult to reconcile a new found peace and freedom with our shifting emotional states, surfacing memories, and our judgmental mind. Meditation can stimulate inner conflict and we may struggle to maintain focus. There are different schools of thought and techniques for navigating this; forgiveness is one of them. So in a sense, meditation reveals conflict and forgiveness reconciles.
A meditation practice in a relatively stable situation, where it becomes a part of your daily life
is one thing, but with forgiveness--just to keep things in perspective--requires a stretch, we are now dealing with a global epidemic that hasn't happened in over 100 years. Along with everything else affected by this particular pandemic, we will have to find our way of forgiveness.
I also brought up forgiveness because if you are on lockdown and spending time in reflection and meditation, it is likely old injuries and emotion wounds may resurface. Times of crisis tend to stir up memories and emotional reactions of past emergencies and trauma. Sometimes that is actually useful, because we realize how resilient and adaptive we are. Sometimes, it is an inner call to the power of forgiveness. (Susan Nettleton)
April 30, 2020
There is still another side to forgiveness and that is self-forgiveness. It's difficult to find the courage to forgive others and events, if we have not yet been able to forgive ourselves. In a way, self -forgiveness is our acknowledgement that we are part of humanity. We, like others make mistakes. We like others sometimes nurture parts of ourselves that are not in our own best interest, nor in the best interest of those whom we love or humanity as a whole. Those who sincerely try to live from the highest they know and strive to live up to their spiritual ideals are often the most self-critical. As with forgiving others, self-forgiveness is softens us and opens are hearts to grace.
In this poem by Spanish poet Antionio Machado (1875-1939), we feel the freedom of that grace. (Susan Nettleton)
https://wordsfortheyear.com/…/last-night-as-i-was-sleeping…/
May 1, 2020
A May begins, the country seems to be on the cusp of a transition from clearcut lockdown to partial and spotted easing of restrictions and the push/pull momentum to "return to normal" or more realistically, "return to the new normal" which is yet to be defined. It's a point we are likely to revisit again and again over the projected timetable of the pandemic (which now ranges from a few months to two years). When events, guidelines and interpretations, opinions and reportedly facts keep changing, continuing the practice of meditation helps to maintain a center of calm in our lives. We can gain self-insight as we stay aware of our own responses to this new level of uncertainty that may aid us in the future.
Yet as I have written before, meditation can be practiced without spiritual content or focus as a secular exercise in relaxation, concentrated attention and even inner reflection. Generally, for people asking me for advice about a spiritual practice I talk about three components: turning inward, positive participation, and giving way. The first two can be part of a healthy secular practice, but giving way brings with it something beyond human will and effort. Forgiveness too can happen without spiritual intent, because everyone at one time or another-- as a matter of necessity in a world that includes human mistakes and mishaps--learns to let go of small resentments and hurt feelings over unintentional slights and trespasses. But the bigger forgiveness issues in life, demand a different kind of "giving way". When we "give way" we move beyond personal will power to another order of reality.
For more of thoughts on "giving way" follow the link from the website:
May 2, 2020
Spring is calling us to come outside and be a part of the renewal of nature. Beyond all the controversy and confusion about when and if, if at all, to lift public health lockdown mandates, the pull of Spring is a reminder that there is a balance to spirituality that includes the outer life as well as the inner. In fact, the fruits of meditation often suddenly ripen--not when we are actually in meditation--but when a new awareness, makes its unexpected arrival as we are going about daily life. Once on a Sunday morning, someone excitedly told me of a spiritual experience she had had the day before. While preparing dinner in her kitchen, she sliced open a bell pepper and found a miniature bell pepper completely formed within the large pepper. She didn't just see the inner pepper, she awoke to it, with the vibrancy of illumination. In the way of a transcendent moment, she could not quite describe the experience, but it brought a new joy of her own wholeness within the Wholeness of Life, the Wholeness of God.
In the stories of monasteries in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, the kitchen is a center of spiritual practice. It is both work, routine and at the same time a creative event worthing of contemplation and mindfulness. It is a kind of transition zone where nature enters our home and is transformed into meals that fuel human activity and nurtures relationships when food is shared. The outside world enters the inner world, and the inner life impacts our outer life through many portals.
As (Bohemian author, 1883-1924) Franz Kafka put it,
"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."
And from the Zenrin-kushū ("Anthology of Passages from the Forests of Zen" 15th century compilation):
"Taking up one blade of grass,
Use it as a sixteen-foot golden Buddha"
May 3, 2020
There is a story in Zen that when asked the essence of Zen, the monk replied, "1..2.3..."--a reference to the fundamental meditation practice of repetitively counting the breath to 10. The breath becomes the focal point that can be returned to over and over again as the mind starts to wander.
In this poem by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904 – 1973), we are asked to be quiet for a count of 12. While meditation deepens as we learn to stay quiet and focused over an increasing length of time for daily practice, there is certainly value in stopping throughout the day in a momentary, "mini" meditation. We collect the moments and find our thinking clears as we move about the day more calmly. So I add Neruda's poem, "On Keeping Quiet, " for this Sunday post. It has the poetic tone of prophecy for our pandemic times. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link to the poem:
http://www.bu.edu/quantum/zen/readings/keepingQuietNeruda.html
May 4, 2020
Art is another portal to the Transcendent. The infinite creative force of Life gives rise to the creative impulse in all of us, but is most visibly expressed in the artist. Your own spiritual practice throughout the lockdown and the entire pandemic holds the potential for new creative movement within you. It is one way to begin to envision the direction you would like to take beyond this crisis as we again face uncertainty and change. Perhaps we can come to further comprehend our personal and collective experience of the Pandemic of 2020 through its emerging art. (Susan Nettleton)
From our website section on the "Creative Well", my further thoughts on art:
"The history of world art is replete with extraordinary, powerful depictions of myth, scripture, mystical encounters-- all pointing to humanity’s relationship to the Divine in sacred as well as irreverent language, tone and image.
Sometimes expression is dramatically bold and direct, perhaps even disturbing. More often art speaks through metaphor, symbols, subtle impressions, and even fragments, struggling to give voice to those aspects of life which as yet have no words but which we must discover and digest beyond definition. Painting, sculpture, literature, poetry, music, theater, dance, photography, and film--all hold the potential to reveal the unknown and unrealized aspects of life. And we, as witnesses and participants, are suddenly struck with improbable recognition: “Yes, this is the way it is.” Or the way it could be... Such work feeds our souls, our spirits, as it opens and expands our own vision, imagination and intuitive grasp of Truth. We are changed by art."
For a glimpse into the emerging art of the pandemic from Canada, follow the link:
https://canadianart.ca/features/canadian-art-in-the-time-of-coronavirus
May 5, 2020
During the lockdown, my daughter has been experimenting with homemade sourdough starter, since we have been unable to find yeast in the local stores or online. The starter is created by mixing flour and water, and then letting the microorganisms that live in the flour and air multiply. There's something magical about the creative process of the microorganisms, unique to the particular air of this kitchen as they mix with those organisms that are unique to this particular bag of flour, and thrive and bubble with life's energy. A neighbor, who has more experience with homemade yeast, told us that it helps the process if you give your starter a name. So my preschooler grandson named it Ab. He and his mom feed Ab flour and water once or twice a day, Ab has rewarded them with exquisite artisan loaves of bread and outstanding homemade pizza crust!
Whenever I hear my daughter announce, "It's time to feed Ab," I am reminded of a spiritual adage I learned from my friend Sidd: "Feed the Light." He sometimes adds his observation that in life, the Dark will take care of itself; it will grow on it's own. The Light expands as we feed it.
As a minister I was trained in New Thought, which aims to rise beyond the world of duality and the battle of Good vs. Evil. New Thought turns it's attention to the Oneness of Life and stays there. New Thought offers the analogy of stumbling into a dark room, bumping into things.
To avoid fear, frustration or injury, you don't argue or fight with the dark. You find the light switch and turn it on. The dark disappears. A similar analogy is to imagine camping at night by a fire in the woods. Gradually you become aware that there are wolves encroaching on the campsite. Again, you don't do battle with the wolves. You build a blazing bonfire from that little campfire and the wolves will withdraw on their own. Whether we are speaking of your own inner state, or the outer times and events of the last months (and today), the spiritual focus is the same. Feed the Light. The "still point" within you is Its Source. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetic inspiration on feeding the Light, consider the poem "Light" by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941).
Follow the link for the poem "Light".
https://www.best-poems.net/rabindranath_tagore/light.html
Note: Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his poetry compilation Gitanjali, published in 1912 that included "Light." During the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic which killed 18 million people in India, Tagore was running a gurukula school for boys in West Bengal. Because there was an extreme doctor shortage and he had studied Ayurvedic medicine, he attended to the sick throughout those years.
May 6, 2020
How do you "feed the Light", especially as one of my friends in Mumbai put it, "in these dark times"? With the news and the emotional intensity of watching the escalating number of confirmed cases of the virus and the death tolls, the heavy shadow of sorrow as well as fear will naturally fall over you. And it isn't just your personal sadness, but a collective grief.
Yet, I am urging you to feed the Light. How do you feed anything in life? You first give it your attention...you attend. I can offer many techniques, and I will touch on some of them over the posts, but the primary thing here is giving the "Light" your attention. Sometimes you have to look for it, sometimes it comes to you, but the key is giving it your full attention and even your open heart.
I had an unexpected encounter with light and shadow once after a very difficult time of meditation. I finally just stopped the meditation because my emptiness was just too much.
When I stood up and turned to the Eastern wall behind me, I met a vision of a cathedral window, with a brilliant flaming rose colored light and a spattering of fractured prisms. I was stunned. The whole wall was radiant. A deep peace fell over me. My mind though was still sorting out the experience. Then I realized that what I was looking at was the shadow of the arched window, 90 degrees to my left. That northern window faced the street and a glass mobile dangled from it's top. The sun was just beginning to set in the west sending rays of light at just the unlikely angle to cast the shadow of the window casings and enlarge the splay of reflections from the mobile.
I thought of centuries of ancient architectural wonders, like Aztec temples and Lord Shiva's Temple in Bangalore, precisely constructed to allow direct sunlight to illuminate the inner sanctuary once a year--the power of light to invoke the sacred.
I let my window's shadow do the same to me as I watched it expand, glow and fade with the setting sun. This time, the Light fed me. (Susan Nettleton)
May 7, 2020
Today I offer you a short parable from Jack Correu's blog on our website (hillsidesource.com),
Here is another reminder through all the difficulties and shadows of life, momentary guideposts, appear, supportive memories surface, unexpected beauty inspires. Our path lightens when we catch hold and savor them. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link to "Little Shack of Shadows":
https://hillsidesource.com/musings/2020/1/29/little-shack-of-shadows
May 8, 2020
This morning I woke up thinking of Taoism. In California, the first stirrings of movement toward opening society beyond lockdown are beginning. Californians are warned the door will be slowly cracked open, cautiously checked, and quickly shut again if/when the number of cases of Covid 19 rise. Less cautious states are lifting restrictions quickly with the pressure of growing social unrest and conflict. Over the coming weeks, we will be faced with new personal decisions and a collective responsibility for our choices as local areas try to reconstruct the economy and culture.
The I Ching, (The Book of Changes, tr. Richard Wilhelm), describes the Taoist concept of the time "Before Completion"as a time of caution that seems particularly relevant for the days ahead:
"The conditions are difficult. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion back to order. But it is a task that promises success, because there is a goal that can unite the forces now tending in different directions. At first, however, one must move warily, like an old fox walking over ice. The caution of a fox walking over ice is proverbial in China. His ears are constantly alert to the cracking of the ice, as he carefully and circumspectly searches out the safest spots. A young fox who as yet has not acquired this caution goes ahead boldly, and it may happen that he falls in and gets his tail wet when he is almost across the water. Then of course his effort has been all in vain. Accordingly, in times "before completion," deliberation and caution are the prerequisites of success."
Deliberation and caution are not just the result of conscious thinking and logical planning. They arise out of our inborn protective intelligence. The time spent in stillness with a deepening spiritual awareness and acceptance of life's interweaving, cultivates the intuitive wisdom needed to navigate our way. (Susan Nettleton)
May 9, 2020
It seems to me, as we turn from the "still point within" in daily meditation to each days course before us, we need the fluidity best described in Taoism: attuning ourselves to the movement of life (the Tao) with the softness and changeability of flowing water. Translated into modern terms, this is a time for responses that are creative, flexible, and adaptable. As Alan Watts put it in his book, Tao: The Watercourse Way, "[T]he art of life is more like navigation than warfare* for what is important is to understand the winds, the tides, the currents, the seasons, and the principles of growth and decay, so that one's actions may use them and not fight them.” And, “The human organism has the same kind of innate intelligence as the ecosystems of nature, and the wisdom of the nerves and senses must be watched with patience and respect.” Within us, because we are of the wholeness of life, we have access to the guidance and direction needed for finding our way, for healing, relating, and living full lives while things continue to change. We learn to follow the movement of life that is harmony with the way life is unfolding.
(*Watts uses the word "warfare"as a reference to Sun Tzu's ancient treatise, The Art of War. Originally written as an analysis of Chinese military strategy and philosophy. It has gained great popularity in the west as a philosophy and strategy for leadership in business and success.Watts redirects us to "go along with the flow of things in an intelligent way.” (Susan Nettleton)
#15. The Tao Te Ching (The Way of Life, tr. Witter Bynner)
Long ago the land was ruled with a wisdom
Too fine, too deep, to be fully understood
And, since it was beyond men's full understanding,
Only some of it has come down to us, as in these sayings:
'Alert as a winter-farer on an icy stream,'
'Wary as a man in ambush,'
'Considerate as a welcome guest,'
'Selfless as melting ice,'
'Green as an uncut tree,
'Open as a valley,'
And this one also, 'Roiled as a torrent,
Why roiled as a torrent?
Because when a man is in turmoil how shall he find peace
Save by staying patient till the stream clears?
How can a man's life keep its course
If he will not let it flow?
Those who flow as life flows know
They need no other force:
They feel no wear, they feel no tear,
They need no mending, no repair.
May 10, 2020
For today's Sunday post, I turn to Unity's Prayer of Protection. This prayer, by poet/ Minister, James Dillet Freeman was first written in 1940 and then, over a 3 year period, evolved into the well-known affirmation below. Published as a pamphlet that was distributed for comfort during World War II, the final line was a specific addition for the warfront. Depending on the situation, I often change that last line to "Wherever you are, Good is", as a remind that the Good is another word for God. Healing is also another word for God. Wherever you are, there is Healing and Health. It is often changed to be communal, changing "you" to "us". It carries with it the release and peace of all the minds and hearts that have repeated it again and again for the last 80 years. I offer it this morning as a universal prayer for the Pandemic, with the gentle spirit of Mother's Day. (Susan Nettleton)
Prayer of Protection
The light of God surrounds you;
The love of God enfolds you;
The power of God protects you;
The presence of God watches over you;
Wherever you are, God is.
—James Dillet Freeman
May 11, 2020
Yesterday, I was reading a recent article in Atlantic Monthly that was addressing the problems facing America as states begin to reopen the economy. The article is a call to increase testing, which is a subject beyond our spiritual focus in this post. However, there was one sentence that leaped out at me, "Survey data show that the economic turmoil is driven not primarily by government shelter-in-place policies but by Americans' fear that going outside will result in illness. Fear.
Shelter-in-Place, when looked at spiritually, involves more than fear. We can remind ourselves that beyond our inborn instincts for self protection, in this global danger, self protection cannot be separated from the charge to protect others--it is a mutual and reciprocal protection. Fear for the well-being of those that we are attached to, our personal unit of relationships is also instinctual. But life is far more than our limited personal hub of connections. The wholeness and oneness of life, the All, is at the core of our spiritual focus through the Pandemic. Realistically, as human beings we are limited in our capacity to grasp that Allness. And as individual human beings, we are limited in are ability to care for everyone, everything, at all times, and especially in a time of universal upheaval. When we ourselves are seriously ill, all our energy is channelled into caring for our health and then moves outward as we begin to regain strength. In the same way when some aspect of our relationship unit is threatened, our care and actions are directed there. But the Pandemic has given us an extraordinary influence on the well-being of thousands, on a real physical level, by participating in public health, both at home and as we leave our homes.
Along with the physical level, we impact the whole by attending to the whole, through prayer, through acquiring understanding, through forgiveness, and creativity in the offering of positive possibilities.
I will take a deeper look at fear during this week, but for now I offer you these lines from the Bible, 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love castes out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love."
Fear is indeed protective. Fear stops us so that we can protect, avoid, process, evaluate, problem solve, overcome, discover love. Fear is not final, it is a step on our way. (Susan Nettleton)
May 12, 2020
Yesterday I wrote about the fear that the Pandemic has brought and I quoted the scripture from I John 4:18--"There is no fear in love; but perfect love castes out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love." I encountered this verse very early in my spiritual journey. I was young and wanted to understand love. I also felt the fears of a young woman trying to make her way through through the world of jobs, education, and relationships. I was immediately intrigued by the verse, but frankly could not really see the connection between fear (in it's instinctual intensity) and love (and all it's variety of meanings and emotions). I wasn't satisfied with a superficial glossing of the idea of conquering fear by forcing myself to love the unlovable. Through my training in Psychiatry, I accepted the idea of "becoming perfect" in love or anything else as wishful, distorted thinking that actually undermines mental health and resiliency. Yet there was something in the verse that held me and overtime, many, many years, it returned again and again as a kind of mantra. I came to just accept that "love" was an antidote for fear and meant different things at different times. After 45 years of meditation practice, I can say, "There is no fear in love." But this love is not the emotion we commonly mean when we use the word. So "love" is an inadequate expression for the delight and awe of life in its infinite forms --an awareness or state--sometimes only momentary--where fear is not possible. Those collected moments generate fortitude. (Susan Nettleton)
May 13, 2020
There are many other "antidotes" to fear and anxiety. A quick search of articles, brought me this sampling which I've arranged here as three basic categories of strategies for overcoming fear: taking charge of ourselves (goals and direction, action, acquiring knowledge, saying "yes" to something new, courage, being in the now), focusing on others (compassion, generosity, leadership), turning to the spiritual (faith, hope, grace, light). Of course there are still many other ways to strategize managing fear!
We can distinguish fear from anxiety--fear being a primarily physical response to an actual threat and anxiety being a perception that includes the thought and feeling that there is, or may be, a threat. The thoughts may or may or may not be accurate and realistic. But the fear response impacts our neurocircuitry impacting our thinking and emotional response, and our thoughts and expectations further alter perception and impact our body to respond with fear. It's not at all a simple thing to separate the two and determine what fear is realistic and what isn't, especially if you are in isolation listening to current news. Remembering that meditation, over time, lowers the fear response and anxiety, helps you sustain your practice even in a time of fear. Your are "taking charge" by returning again and again to a time of stillness and inner reflection. That time inevitably will bring an inner sense of others and the questions of how you integrate others into your inner reflection and outer life. Your begin to see the wisdom of "focusing on others". Your meditation seen in the light of "spiritual practice" brings new awareness of both your fears and your capacity to let go and accept an underlying peace."Sheltering in Place" holds the potential not just for impacting others' health and your own, but also for the time and space to build inner strength.
In the classic tale of Buddha's awakening, "Siddhartha", Hermann Hesse relates the story of Siddhartha's decision to return to the material world. After years in the forest living in a community of wandering ascetic monks, he returns to the city seeking work. During his employment interview, he has asked what he has learned from those years of renunciation and spiritual practice, what has he to give to the business. Siddhartha responds, "I can think, I can wait. I can fast." His potential employer probes a little further, asking him if he can write and testing him by asking him to write something out then and there. Siddhartha takes the pen and writes, "Writing is good, thinking is better. Being smart is good, being patient is better."
Siddhartha is hired.
"Sheltering in Place" holds the potential not just for impacting others' health and your own, but also for the time and space to build inner strength for the time of return. (Susan Nettleton)
May 14, 2020
There is one other significant antidote for fear--creativity. If you can accept the deep well of creativity within you and remember that you carry that with you, as an essential aspect of Life's Intelligence and your innate instincts, then you have reassurance that you can adapt to change. Creativity expresses in infinite forms. Often our idea of what creativity means restricts the full force of it's expression. What could be more creative than the process of having to adapt to the immediacy of the Pandemic? It is creativity that carries problem solving beyond the known into new possibilities, on a global scale, national scale, local community and within your own home.
Whether you are reckoning with protective measures like masks, or supplies and food shortages, or possibilities of earning income at home, or learning to handle new software to stay in touch with others, or navigating changes in your health care, or al the other routines that have been upended, sweeping changes or minor but still important to you--the creative well lays within you.
Dive in. (Susan Nettleton)
For for thoughts on anxiety and creativity, follow the link below to Larry Morris' article
(April 29, 2003) on "Turn Anxiety into Creativity" from our website. In 2003, the world focus was on the Middle East. Today of course, we face the Global Pandemic.
May 15, 2020
Every day we are presented with new information on Covid 19 and it's impact. There is a massive world wide scientific effort at work that is rapidly discovering more and more facets of the virus. This scientific push brings with it an unparalleled attempt to explain each newly discovered aspect to the world's population, as knowledge is accumulated. Obviously, there are times when complex experimental data and discoveries (which are usually narrow in scope and have a specific focus) are misunderstood, distorted and misused. To truly understand the virus, all the pieces of scientific discovery have to be integrated throughout the whole course of the illness--which has yet to be completed. We are learning as the we go. The constantly changing situation along with contradictory "guidance" and predictions about the coming months (and sometimes longer) add to the general uncertainty and fear. Yet, we do need information and guidance. If we want to act and plan, we have to spend time and energy learning new terms and probing announcements enough to intelligently make our decisions. The "self-education" we gain in the process can be a positive experience if we don't get too overwhelmed or disheartened by it all. At the same time, we can direct our attention back to the spiritual level, feeding the Light and calming the mind, relying on the deeper guidance within. And we can pray.
I am reminded of a quote by Biologist E.O. Wilson. “Still, if history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. Acceptance of the supernatural conveyed a great advantage throughout prehistory when the brain was evolving. Thus it is in sharp contrast to biology, which was developed as a product of the modern age and is not underwritten by genetic algorithms. The uncomfortable truth is that the two beliefs are not factually compatible. As a result those who hunger for both intellectual and religious truth will never acquire both in full measure.”
Edward O. Wilson, "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge"
Perhaps he is correct, but perhaps the better path and humanity's potential lies in not acquiring both in full measure, but in becoming the hybrid of both. Perhaps this is the core of 21st century spirituality: defining something that is not the dualistic "full measure" of either, but is the blended expression of both. I agree with him that we are genetically hard wired for looking beyond our narrow sense of self to a larger transcendent whole. Humanity has for centuries found profound satisfaction, comfort, and power in prayer--prayer as the turning toward something beyond ourselves for understanding and healing. Like a sunflower that automatically turns toward the sun without thought or complex formulation, human hearts automatically seek the Source of life in prayer. Certainly, that is true now.
From our website, on further thought: https://hillsidesource.com/times-of-upheaval
May 16, 2020
Prayer is the complementary practice to meditation. Like meditation, prayer can be a powerful shared experience or, though silent, an equally potent solitary one. There is a simple, traditional adage that is useful to those new to spiritual practice that says, "prayer is speaking to God and meditation is listening to God." That "speaking" to God may be the spontaneous eruption of our minds and hearts or can be a formal process of recitation. As our spiritual life deepens, there is less divide between prayer and meditation as one state can flow into the other, back and forth. This flow is an aspect of the seemingly two realities realities we live in--our "everyday worldly life", now ravaged by the Pandemic, and our spiritual life which transcends the turmoil of the world of separation, fear and conflict. Prayer is our means of turning to the transcendent, to the larger life, to the Source for help, understanding, and solutions to the problems, suffering , and longings of daily life. Anglo-Catholic writer/scholar Evelyn Underhill wrote that humans are capable of being amphibian creatures, equally at home in the etherial realm of spirit as well as on the solid ground of the world. But realistically, she wrote: "We mostly spend (our) lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do...forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be." *
In prayers during the Pandemic, there are so many things we all want--want to have, want to do, want for other--those we know personally and those whose stories we have heard. There is so much that we want for our future and their future, so much that we fear will be taken from us. Some of our wants arise from the fullness of our Being and our instinctual compassion for others. Some arise from cultural conditioning and the wants of others superimposed on us. Inner quiet, the time of "stillness" sorts the true from the false, and returns us to clarity. Try weaving moments of stillness and silence in your prayers, however you pray. Pause to listen. (Susan Nettleton)
For more thoughts on the maturing process of prayer from the website, follow the link:
https://hillsidesource.com/maturinginprayer
*Evelyn Underhill, Christopher L. Webber (2006). “Advent with Evelyn Underhill”, p.43, Church Publishing, Inc.
May 17, 2020
I have been reflecting on prayer as more than just a way of nurturing your spiritual life, or a coping strategy, but as our capacity to individually and collectively participate in healing and supporting the Good. I look at prayer as a natural force--a way that we align ourselves with the creative movement of life, a way that enhances the possibilities of furthering life in it's wholeness. Praying for the healing of the Pandemic and all of it's social and personal consequences can seem overwhelming--certainly too great a task for whatever you personally can manage in whatever state you find yourself. But like most complex problems that seem a tangled mess, we start with what is closest, right in front of us and begin there and let our hearts lead.
Essayist Annie Dillard in "Holy the Firm" (1977) wrote: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead--as if innocence had ever been--and our children busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been."
For further inspiration, I include America's 2019 Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's "Eagle Poem". Follow the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46545/eagle-poem
May 18, 2020
Prayer, like other terms of spiritual practice, can be limited by inflexible mindsets and assumptions or religious rituals and rules. While there can be tremendous power in ritual prayer, the key of all spiritual practice is its expression of life. That is, prayer is a living, dynamic activity. Even if the words have not changed in thousands of years, they can be given a newness a freshness, by the immediacy of the need and communion. Spontaneous prayer has the words of the moment, but our words can hit against our own rigid beliefs that are not always conscious.
Prayer is one of the ways we let go, give way to a larger field of Intelligence and Care. It is the giving way that opens us to perspectives and solutions we have not previously grasped. As one minister put it, when despite all his prayers his intolerable situation stayed "stuck", he was forced to pray in a new way: "God show me where my answers are wrong." This is one way to reach the point of "giving way" or surrender.
Another way is to consider the idea expressed in a poem by Rumi and summed as the axiom: "That which your are seeking is seeking you." When you begin to explore this idea, you discover that your longing has ultimately led to you to prayer for the very thing that is seeking you. Prayer becomes the vehicle through which you open to receive, to welcome, to meet the gift. The whole atmosphere of prayer changes. The real spiritual practice is in opening to receive.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
What you seek, is seeking you.” Rumi
May 19, 2020
Traditional, petitionary prayer keeps the structure our humanity and our need as we turn to God (or the Source) with a sense of separation. In petitionary prayer we recognize that God is the greater and we are dependent on Divine Grace and Love. Prayer then is highly relational. It is a communication and sharing of our lives with The Other, The Supreme Being. Affirmative prayer on the other hand, begins at the point of Union with God, not separation. It views life as the ongoing expression of God's creative activity in the world, and in particular, human consciousness as a vehicle of Divine creative manifestation. The focus of affirmative prayer is bringing forth Divine Good in the individual's mind, body and external affairs by affirming It and accepting It in consciousness. This begins with identification with God, in the spirit of "inseparable Oneness". We in a sense, still recognize the Transcendent vastness of God beyond the individual, but the individual remains inseparable from the Whole. So rather than asking in prayer, we affirm in prayer. And grow into acceptance.
Most of us pray in different ways at different times. We need and can adapt to different ways of seeing our "relationship" to the sacred and the Oneness of life. In this time of Pandemic, we especially need adaptability, even in our prayer life. Although we know that psychologically being positive is generally more productive than an atmosphere of doom and gloom, affirmative prayer is more than just thinking positive thoughts. We need to digest all the events of the current Pandemic, our knowledge, experience and opinions of reputable experts, in order to forge a plan as we move through the remainder of the year. There is value in affirming the Good and a positive vision for our future that is rooted in Oneness. The key to Affirmative prayer is Oneness. If we leave anyone out of our vision and our prayer, we no longer stand on spiritual ground.
For James Dillet Freeman's blending of prayer levels in the poem "I Am There", follow the link: http://meilach.com/spiritual/Poems_Freeman/iamthere.htm
May 20, 2020
Affirmative prayer is one of the ways that we "feed the light." We begin with the level of what we can--with open eyes and heart--affirm as the positive aspects of our lives right now.
Depending on the day and our feeling states, we may have to work a bit to move past our fears and frustrations with the way things have been going, to recognize and acknowledge the positive. It strikes me as a particularly tricky path right now, because of the exceptional amount of controversy, arguments, and distortion of events that we see and hear through the media regarding the Pandemic. A time of silent meditation creates gaps in all the noise of society. It gives our nervous system time to recover and reboot. It allows the space for our innate intelligence to surface with calm clarity, so that we can see what is true and what is not.
I have often advised people who are worn down and depressed in times of personal illness or serious life stresses to take the time to shift their attention away from the problem to focus on what is good in their lives, to remember the parts of their bodies that are working properly and that they have relied on, to look at the positive connections and relationships that support them, to recover a more balanced perspective. When life is really difficult, even in times of great losses or potential loss, there are always compensating factors as well as sources of satisfaction and comfort. Good is always knocking on the door, no matter how subtle. So we begin there, choosing to attend to "what is working", even while struggling to cope with what is genuinely awful. We start with what we know to be good and in time from that recognition of good, begin to affirm a growing and unfolding positive future, as an act of prayer. Affirmative prayer is not a quick fix. It is a steady, conscious focus, a way of welcoming positive possibilities that spiritually arise from creative love. (Susan Nettleton)
In the words of Emmet Fox (1886-1951), the great 20th century minister, writer, and practitioner of affirmative prayer:
"Try not to be tense or hurried. Tension and hurry delay the demonstration. You know that if you try to unlock a door hurriedly, the key is apt to stick, whereas, if you do it slowly, it seldom does. If the key sticks, the thing is to stop pressing, take your breath, and release it gently. To push hard with will power can only jam the lock completely. . .
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." (Isaiah 30:15)
May 21, 2020
My grandson has recently been engaged in experiments with clear office tape. He is building tape bridges connecting various walls and objects as well as generally investigating which objects can be hung on the walls with tape. He prefers tape to glue probably because tape needs less supervision from the adults. Like most 3-4 year olds, he also loves "stickers" and has quite a collection. We are besieged now with the "why" questions: why some things stick and not others, why they are sticky to begin with, why stickers loose their stickiness when wet or dirty? Daily discussions on stickiness leads me to think about thought and affirmative prayer. We build our framework of belief about ourselves and our lives, through bridges of thought. Whether we are consciously focused on it or not we are building bridges between the Pandemic of 2020 and our future. Some thoughts adhere more than others. While neuroscience is progressing in our understanding of thought, we really can't answer why some thoughts are stickier than others. This becomes a particularly relevant idea when we attempt to affirm the positive and confront our own habitual disturbing thoughts that cause fear, anger and hopelessness. (Susan Nettleton)
Emmett Fox, in his book, "Make Your Life Worthwhile", wrote about what he called "The Law of Substitution" describing how to free yourself from negative thoughts. Although published in 1942, his ideas are quite compatible with modern psychology and cognitive, behavioral therapy used in the treatment of depression and anger management. Here are a few of his strategies for maintaining affirmative prayer.
"The Law of Substitution: One of the great mental laws is the Law of Substitution. This means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another one for it. You cannot dismiss a thought directly. You can do so only by substituting another one for it. On the physical plane this is not the case. You can drop a book or a stone by simply opening your hand and letting it go; but with thought this will not work. If you want to dismiss a negative thought, the only way to do so is to think of something positive and constructive...If I say to you, "Do not think of the Statue of Liberty," of course, you immediately think of it. If you say, "I am not going to think of the Statue of Liberty," that is thinking of it. But now, having thought of it, if you become interested in something else, say, by turning on the radio, you forget all about the Statue of Liberty - and this is a case of substitution.
It sometimes happens that negative thoughts seem to besiege you in such force that you cannot overcome them. That is what is called a fit of depression, or a fit of worry, or perhaps even a fit of anger. In such a case the best thing is to go and find someone to talk to on any subject, or to go to a good movie or play, or read an interesting book, say a good novel or biography or travel book, or something of the kind. If you sit down to fight the negative tide you will probably succeed only in amplifying it.
Turn your attention to something quite different, refusing steadfastly to think of or rehearse the difficulty, and, later on, after you have completely gotten away from it, you can come back with confidence and handle it by spiritual treatment. "I say unto you that you resist not evil. " Matthew 5.39
May 22, 2020
Non-resistance is always a confusing topic. It's not always clear what level of life or field of action that someone is referring too, because the term has been used in different contexts.
When I use the term, I am referring to the spiritual level of life. Non-resistance then means learning to move with the flow of life, recognizing whatever drama may be taking place within human structures ultimately is contained within the larger spiritual reality, which we do not personally, nor collectively, control. At the same time, our consciousness, personally and collective, does have an impact to a greater or lesser degree, depending on our "alignment" with the flow. That is not something you do through thinking, it is more subtle than thinking. Rather, it is something you arrive at through letting go...through surrender...through non-resistance to the spiritual level of life. Affirmative prayer (as well as other forms of prayer) does change us.
Over time, it softens us, makes us more resilient and more aware of the guide posts that are natural to life. Also overtime, we become more aware of the beauty and goodness of life, as we find that we have been making life more complicated than it need be. As I like to put it, "Life takes care of life."
There is a certain quality to the human mind and spirit that "what we resist, persists." Carl Jung added, "What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size." He was speaking in terms of the human psyche and the way that early conditioning and cultural rules, develop the various defense mechanisms of the mind to suppress and repress aspects of the individual. Our conditioned response to resist aspects of who we are, rather than discover, accept and integrate those aspects, prevents us from fully individuating--becoming the whole of who and what we are. Similarly, within the larger spiritual field, our resistance to life events, limits our understanding of and responsiveness to the wholeness of all creation. Still, resistance is a self-protective instinct. The more we grow to understand that our individual well-being is interdependent with the well-being of others, the less emphasis there is on our separate sense of self-protection and the more adaptable we become.
If you spend accumulated time in silence, sustaining an inner quiet, you discover that thoughts come and go and you no longer readily latch on to them; they lose their sticking quality.
Eventually we realize that we don't have to think or mentally comment and analyze every event as we move about our day. We don't need a constant inner dialogue or monologue. The extraordinary events of a Pandemic are going to stir up all sorts of thoughts and emotions and defense mechanisms and we are going to have those times where we bounce around from one state to another. But life stabilizes. Our minds and emotions when given a chance to rest, regroup. Realize it or not, you are in the process of healing and adapting through it all.
May 23, 2020
Today I encourage you to try an experiment in surrender and non-resistance. Keep your experiment simple and try not to contaminate it with memories of similar experiments that failed to bring the outcome you wanted. Let this be a fresh experiment. Pick just one day to not resist any of the day's unfolding. Give up any struggles with others, with objects, with yourself, including any news and information on the Pandemic that you may hear. Trust that this day you can relax. If there's something unexpected that you need to take action on, you will know what to do. Relax.
Give up your complaints. Give up automatic, judgmental interpretations. Assume neutrality, if not an outright positive reaction. Assume there is a thread of a larger reality, that you trust, that is woven through this particular day. This day you have chosen to let that thread lead you and that means getting out of the way. Do what you need to do as part of the daily business of life, but relax into the day with a sense that for just this one time period you do not have to have things work your way. If it stays on your mind, you can voice a complaint or pronounce your judgment another day. This day, you can risk letting it go.
Non-resistance and surrender are not just about action but reaction, not just about doing or not doing, but about attitude and thoughts as well. Resistance does though impact the body, as it will automatically brace and tense to defend against what the mind and emotions resist. So the body is one of your cues or measures of how much you are struggling against the flow of life.
Take the time to let your muscles relax and a moment to breathe slowly and deeply as needed.
Even in meditation, it is a time to be led. Your inner life is as it needs to be right now. Even in sleep, you are being led. Life's intelligent, automatic release and renewal is taking place in sleep and does not need to be managed by you.
In the words of inventor Buckminster Fuller. "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
Perhaps with your experiment in spiritual non-resistance, a new model for your life will emerge. (Susan Nettleton)
May 24, 2020
For this Sunday morning post, I direct you to a poem by W. S. Mervin (1927-1919).
A poem that voices the discovery that comes in letting go.
Follow the link: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/M/MerwinWS/JustNow/index.html
Follow the link: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/…/Merwi…/JustNow/index.html
May 25, 2020
Memorial Day has become a day of cross currents. This is strikingly true in this year of Pandemic.This is America's official day of both honor and grief for the military personnel who have died while serving in the armed forces. It holds within it's history, the grateful awe of self-sacrifice and the sad tragedy of war. As perhaps a collective defense against these intense, and really ancient emotions, American culture has produced a counter holiday of summer celebration. Each year brings its own variation of the choppy waves of demands and desires. We want the freedom to revel outdoors in a three day holiday weekend in spring as it just hints of summer, we want to recognize heroes--our heroes--and draw courage from them, we want peace but we want to blame, we want to remember and we want to forget. And so in the face of new, unimaginable losses from a devastating Pandemic, we are left with more conflict and division on Memorial Day.
My intent is to spotlight the undercurrents of the day and the past weekend to simply encourage you in the traditional moment of silence. The moment of silence has evolved in our culture as our baby steps in acknowledging personal reflection. It is used in memorials and in times of communal support to give each individual the space, the freedom, to turn within their own minds and heart--to feel, to remember, and to express silently, as thought or prayer, the focus of the time. It can be a powerful public practice. While leaders and speakers can inspire and direct through speeches as part of the program of community events, the silence allows everyone's contribution. That silent space affirms the significance of the individual within the whole--as a point of relationship, as a contributor to collective memory, and as a witness to life.
This is not the same as your daily meditation practice. It is the moment dedicated to offering your silence in the collective with recognition of our diverse meanings and values and varying frameworks of thought, riding all the choppy waves. We have our personal memories and meaning and visions of the future. We are witnesses. We add our inner voice. (Susan Nettleton)
May 26, 2020
Across the country some states are cautiously preparing for reopening; others have moved quickly. Warnings escalate, but, society is moving at different speeds, in different ways, toward "re-entry". It will take time--at least two weeks--to evaluate the contagion consequences of any lifting of restrictions. Some places who have moved too quickly will take steps back. We also have warnings that we are likely to see the resurgence of Covid 19 in the fall. All of this makes it very difficult to personally plan for the months ahead.
As society mobilizes, mental health professionals point out the psychological trauma caused by the Pandemic. Life as we knew it suddenly stopped. For many in lockdown, it's a time marked by feeling disoriented as routines, work, finances and relationships are disrupted. Just organizing a day is a challenge, let alone organizing a life after lockdown! Despite our wishful thoughts, life for most people will not just go back to the way it was. It is not a simple matter of accepting loss and moving forward with the new, because the new has no definition as yet; the process is not at all over.
Yet, this is the time we live. It is a time to affirm and attend to our resilience. It is a time to reflect on what we have discovered through the shock of the Pandemic and months of lockdown--how and what do we now chose to do differently, because of this time. What now seems important to us, important enough to commit to as we consider our lives from this point forward? Look at not just the big commitments of life, but also the smaller things that we are discovering that contribute to our contentment and personal sense of well being. Begin with the building blocks of these as the very early stages of emerging new life.
Spiritually, we trust the positive stirrings within us, the pieces of insight we have had, the inner pull to open to the prospect of renewed life through changing times. Life is resilient and therefore, so are we. (Susan Nettleton)
May 27, 2020
Panic and fear of our future is not helpful. Realistically, the future is, by it's very nature, uncertain. There have been times of social instability, and there have been stable times with little cultural change, giving the future the air of certainty. Through cognitive therapy techniques, one learns to "fact check" distorted thinking, including negative expectations for the future. The fact is the future has always been uncertain. When you find yourself conjuring up images of a bleak or disastrous future, stop. Remind yourself, "you don't know what the future holds." Given that you do not know, and no one else does either with absolute certainty, why assume the worst?
This is a time to begin sorting through options, sifting through impressions, envisioning our individual movement forward. We can choose a re-affirmation of positive expectations for ourselves. We can recover meaning--perhaps find new meaning--as we face the dance between individual change and collective change and even at an unseen level, cosmic change, all of which you are. (Susan Nettleton)
May 28, 2020
To go a bit deeper into contemplating the impact of the Pandemic on you at this juncture, with so many different views and stages of re-entry, I am posting a quote from a series of Sunday talks I gave in 2017 on "Changing life".
"[We are] walking this line between the collective experience of change, which you are a part of, and the uniqueness of individuality. When we are talking about individuals, we recognize that some personalities are more pro-change than others. Some people are more fluid and adaptable, some people are highly mercurial--they change not just day to day but within the course of a day--they can be a whirlwind, entering to revolutionize the day, if not the world! Some people hold a stable sense of themselves and life around them, not rigid, but stable, reflective, slow to introduce change in their lives, slow to react to change. Others are more than stabilizing individuals; they rigidly, even aggressively resist change. When you put these personalities in the whole mix of life with an overview effect, you get a feel for the roles of those different energies in this collective process of reworking of consciousness.
On the other hand, when you are interacting with a specific individual, you can interpret that personality as petty and undermining, obstructionist, or another as helpful strength, creative inventiveness, or another as hurtful pushiness, or as agitated and exhausting. These are some of the dynamics of interacting with attitudes toward change.
Of course, many people are a mix and are agreeable to change in some situations and highly resistant in others. At different points in life, some feel stagnant in a way that grows into a global thought that everything is stagnant. They push to change friends and partners, jobs and careers, where they live, where they go, what they look like...the unmet longing for change in one area may spread to dissatisfaction in every area of life. Unfortunately, that dissatisfaction and frustration can harden into a basic sour sense of life and pessimism about change.
Others have found a space of security and comfort, having arranged life in a way they enjoy, but they can never quite let go to it because they brace against the possibility of change. There are some that deny the changing realities of life, out of fear; and some who are so insulated within themselves that they really don’t notice that life is changing around and in them.
And there are those that have found a spiritual focus, made peace with the movements of life, but focus on a non-changing transcendent that actually enables them to shift and allow life to just unfold. This is not the same thing as being self-withdrawn from life, but rather, being plugged into a larger scope of life. "
So a next step in facing 'a changing life', is to understand yourself enough to know your own temperament toward change.
And I add for today's thought, as we ponder how we will personally handle re-entry, consider this quote by Howard Thurman (Minister/Author 1899-1981). To me, his words apply today to both the concrete level of social distancing and the broader issue of what value-driven energy will underwrite our lives. (Susan Nettleton)
“There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The 1st is " Where am I going?" and the 2nd is "Who will go with me?" If you ever get these questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.” Howard Thurman
May 29, 2020
When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, it left hundreds of square miles of Washington forest, once green and lush, buried under heavy gray ash. The landscape was instantly barren. In 1982, Congress created the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Scientists and visitors alike were able to observe both the devastating destruction and over time, the phenomenal recovery of plants and animals, without man's interference.
When a Benedictine Sister, Sr. Mary, visited the site, she described buried cars and trees still sticking up at angles like spilled toothpicks. It was like walking on the moon. At the time, authorities were saying it was possible nothing would ever grow there again. She climbed as high as she could and looked around at the vast nothingness. When she turned to leave, she looked down, and there, in the ash, was one single purple flower. She was overcome with it’s transcendent beauty punctuated with one thought: "Here is life. It cannot be stopped or destroyed, even with the power of a volcano.”
In some areas, the destruction meant no going back to anything resembling it's previous state as land masses were dramatically reformed. Other areas thrived, grew lush and increased with new plant forms, forests, insects and animals. Michael Casey's 2015 CBS interview with U.S. Forest Service ecologist Charlie Crisafulli, quoted the ecologist's conclusion that "... life is enormously competent and well practiced at re-insinuating itself into disturbed areas. Our expectation should be that life is incredibly tenacious."
Resilience as a property in the material world, enables it to resume its original shape or position after being bent, stretched, or compressed; elasticity. In economics, we can look at resilience as the act of rebounding. Human resilience is conceived as our ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune. Spiritual resilience can be seen as the way in which our spiritual life moves and directs us to give way to life and awaken to new understanding of ourselves within the Oneness, the Whole of it all. These are all images of resilience to fuel our own leap forward. You, too, are a part of nature's tenacity. (Susan Nettleton)
May 30, 2020
Today, Life is calling you to Peace. Every day calls you to Peace, but a day of news of increasing violence is a day calling for increasing Peace. It may not seem like the inner peace of individuals outside a storm of aggressive frenzy bears any relationship to resolving so many complex mixtures of conflicts, anger and hate, but spiritually Life is a whole. Your personal resiliency and health calls for Peace as well. Your spiritual life responds to prayers for Peace, for yourself, your personal field of relationships, your community, country, and world. Peace be with you. (Susan Nettleton)
"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings Peace." Buddha
"Blessed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." Jesus
For more thoughts and a meditation on Peace from hillsidesource.com and Larry Morris, follow the links below:
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thou…/…/invitation-to-peace
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoug…/…/19/peace-discovery
May 31, 2020
My the intent this morning was to post further inspiration for a still deeper spiritual peace. But the day began with all three children of the household rushing in with their mom to crowd around my computer and watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrive at the International Space Station. Live feed from the International Space Station, along with the camera shots of earth below, always bring a sense of awe and wonder. It is an icon for humanity's ability to work together with a shared vision, to discover and fulfill new possibilities for our world. Even though the children didn't really understand, they were carried away with excitement, grabbing everything they could reach, sending things crashing to the floor. This was followed by a wild romp in another room and then back to the baby corral as I settled again to post on peace. Soon after though, I heard a blast of crying, at first with tones of outrage and then continued with the angst of hurt feelings as one sister wrestled a teething biscuit away from the other. I had to laugh at the irony of constant interruption while trying to offer you inspiration on peace. But spiritual peace is not a noiseless state, or a life-less state, that always conforms to our ordering of life. Deep peace at our inmost center is that space of assurance that all is well, even when life is chaotic. What kept running through my mind was this Gaelic blessing:
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you...
And from St. Theresa of Avila (Spanish Nun, Mystic and Writer, 1515-1582)
Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All thing pass; God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing:
God alone suffices."
Peace, Susan Nettleton
June 1, 2020
Today many wake up to the news of more upheaval in the city riots along with the concern of the new spread of Covid 19 through mass gatherings. As you go about your day, whether you are out in the community or sheltering in place, I encourage you to stay with prayers and thoughts of Peace, for your self first and those of your circle, and in your own way, expand. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "set a mood of peace."
“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Pandemic is still with us. We have learn a great deal through hard human experience and through a dedicated scientific and medical community. As we continue to find our way, as individual, we can do our best to "be voices of reason, sanity and understanding". It can be difficult when emotions run high and you have your personal fears and struggles. Yet, understanding yourself as a unique individual who is part of the whole is the core of your spiritual resources. We can move forward in a mood of peace. (Susan Nettleton)
For more reflection on Peace from Larry Morris follow the links
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/5/25/peace-anchor
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/5/25/peace-envelope
June 2, 2020
For a little respite from the news and a contemplation on the Japanese art of Kintsugi, I invite you to follow the link below to Jack Correu's blog (Musings from the Little Shack of Insight) and his May post, "Kintsugi Time at the Little Shack". In Kintsugi art, the focus is the beauty and value of imperfection. It reminds us that all forms of life are ultimately transient--all the more reason to respect and celebrate them, as we learn to both let go and repair. Woven through this story is the reminder of another significant principle of resiliency for the 2020 Pandemic: the value of a friend. (Susan Nettleton)
Here's the link:
https://hillsidesource.com/kintsugi-time-at-the-little-shack
June 3, 2020
Last night as I reflected on the last few days of protests, violent factions, early curfews and lock-downed cities, I had a revelation, followed by a flood of optimism.
As we have been collectively digesting this sudden turn of events, there has been a pervasive sense of a society "on the brink". The final straw of George Floyd's death that ignited the eruption of outrage and racial tension seemingly could only bring more instability, fear, pain, and conflict to the American people already on overload, struggling to find our way back to "normal" or "new normal". The focus of the Pandemic and the rapidly spreading, deadly virus seemed swept away by the tidal wave of demands for racial equality and justice and escalating news of violence, vandalism and looting. The underlying, yet overwhelming, reaction has been: how can we possibly manage all this chaos?-- as if this were somehow a separate event.
The human mind divides and separates; we think of life events in categories and components. It is one of the ways we have learned to examine life and acquire knowledge, to systematize and organize society. By doing so through science and institutions, we gain some measure of control over the wildness of life. But in so doing, we lose fundamental perspective on the unity of life. The spiritual life transcends division. It is one process. One movement. The protests are not separate from the Pandemic. Yes, racial injustice has deep roots in the human psyche and in American history. Yet, the Civil Rights Movement has deep roots in spirituality, in a devoted affirmation that freedom, justice, and dignity belong to every human being and achieving it can only be through right action. Affirming these values for one group, while dis-avowing them for others, tears the fabric of life's support for all. [At this time in history, we also face the realization that we must begin to include not just all of humanity, but all forms of life in the fabric of care and respect.]
An event as disastrous as the Covid-19. Global Pandemic both exposes and exploits social failure and vulnerabilities. We discover that we have yet to repair the fabric.
We collectively return to the oneness of life, through returning as individuals. Racial divide keeps us from the Wholeness of Life, keeps us from the Source of spiritual healing. What is so complex for human civilization and it's structures and institutions, is not that hard for the human heart.
I was powerfully impacted by the threads of reconciliation that have occurred over these tumultuous days--the courage of those in the most damaged neighborhoods to brave the streets offering help and protection to one another, the clarity of those beginning clean-up and repair, the intelligence and heart of those on seemingly opposite sides who could kneel together and pray, the peaceful vigils held in quiet. These give evidence to the One Movement of Life that heals. I am left with the unexpected assurance that spiritual healing in process. (Susan Nettleton)
June 4, 2020
As the protest crowds begin to settle and the curfews past, many businesses and public places slowly begin the process of re-opening. Underneath renewed activity though, there is a feeling of waiting, especially for those in public health are watching the Covid-19 data and for those who must structure and monitor re-opening regulations. This weekend (and extending into Monday) will mark the 14 days from Memorial Weekend, which is the standard CDC quarantine for those who have been exposed to Covid-19. Memorial Weekend was the time period when social distancing regulations broke apart in many recreational areas across the country. Some people self-isolated following that weekend, most did not. It will take another week plus a few days following this weekend to mark the quarantine period for the massive protests that have been taking place, where large groups of people--some with masks and some without--walked shoulder to shoulder through the streets. Approximately 97% of the people who get infected and develop symptoms do so within 11 to 12 days, and around 99% within 14 days. But even those who have no symptoms 2 weeks later are potential carriers who can infect someone else. Regulations will likely shift in areas if cases begin to suddenly climb. There are several factors that could have mitigated risks: activities that were in open air, maintaining hand washing, a seasonal shift in weather and temperature, a low rate of infection in the population, factors that have yet to be discovered--we just don't know yet. Hence the need to wait. So if you are feeling uncertain about your own plans to move past lockdown, it maybe you are in waiting mode too.
You may be reflecting the uncertainty and watchfulness of the community planners.
It's not waiting for the perfect moment, it is waiting for the right moment. A right moment doesn't mean a problem free path, nor one with a guaranteed outcome. For community planners it means the right data. For the individual, it means that you feel ready, that you are willing to wait (you are not stubbornly and forcefully pushing ahead), but the door is opening and it is seems time to at least take a few steps in the right direction. In the Taoist Book of Changes (I Ching), the idea of "Waiting" is linked to Nourishment. This is not a time of idleness, rather it is a time of preparation that includes fortifying yourself with food and good cheer. Nourish yourself with the inspiring ideas of others, think, read. Meditate. Pray. Rest and replenish. "Fate comes when it will, and thus you are ready."
June 5, 2020
Yesterday was a celebration in this household. For the last two weeks we have been nurturing a "butterfly farm". This is a small kit designed for children to learn about and assist in the hatching of butterflies. The project began with 5 caterpillars in a cup with food and air holes. We could watch them eat and move a bit, keeping the room warm, yet out of sunlight, careful to keep things clean and not introduce any bacteria. When they were ready, the caterpillars began their ascent to the top of the cup and spinning strands of silk, they attached themselves to a disk at the top, hanging upside down in a J shape. This initiated the process of their body transforming into a chrysalis. It required 'leaving them be' in stillness. The cup could not be disturbed. With our boisterous house, this was the most difficult but crucial step, doing nothing! After 24 hours, they were very gently cleaned of their webbing, and moved to the top of a small netted tent, still hanging on the disk. Only one caterpillar had failed to climb, a source of great concern, but following the instructions, we gently lay it on a paper towel on the floor of the tent next to the tent wall. We waited some more. For the next week, it seemed nothing was happening. We began to doubt-- especially the one that had failed to climb, as it lay motionless on the floor day after day.
But yesterday, there was movement. On the floor of the tent, a new creature seemed to be emerging, but then stopped. The strangeness, the movement, and then utter stillness, convinced us it was not going to make it. But amazingly it did. What appeared to us as the weakest, the injured one without a chance, opened it's wings and we cheered! We sang happy birthday and repeated the song three more times during the day as 4 out of 5 butterflies emerged. This morning, number 5 hatched. Like yesterday's arrivals, its wings, as they dried, revealed the colorful pattern of the painted lady butterfly.
In a few days we will release them outdoors, but for now we celebrate the mystery, beauty and resilience of life that can transform...is transforming... unseen. (Susan Nettleton)
June 6, 2020
Over these weeks of lockdown, I have written in various ways about attention, focus, attitude and affirmation, as well as our time in meditative silence. These are all aspects of consciousness and contribute to our own well-being. They are ways that we influence the "atmosphere" of the environment and relationships around us. We respond to life and life responds to us. That is the "dance of life", that still implies a veil of separation. It is only a veil, not a wall--a veil that allows for the magnificence of creation--infinite forms within the One Source.
You as an individual, and you in shared agreement with others, do have influence in the collective "atmosphere". That "atmosphere", in turn, impacts those immediately around you, and from there outwardly, to an expanding circumference. Interestingly, it has parallels with contagion and the way that disease is spread from one individual to other individuals, who in turn, spread it further exponentially. While there is research that points to "emotional contagion" (in fear, panic, depression, pessimism and optimism), this idea of "atmospheric" tone is more than just emotions. A positive atmosphere built on spiritual consciousness is more than just an upbeat feeling tone, or hope. It has added to it spiritual recognition and consistent action that is integrated with both expectation and experience. Even though we have yet been able to measure it in a lab (although there is research making the attempt), there is a solidity to spiritual consciousness.
Consider the classic quote by Confucius:
“If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nations.
When there is order in the nations, there will peace in the world.”
(Susan Nettleton)
June 7, 2020
For this Sunday, I pause from the tumultuous week and encourage you to spend part of your day in the silence of nature, even if it is only through images or words. Here are two powerful descriptions from Annie Dillard’s 1982 book Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. (Susan Nettleton)
“The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega, it is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blinded note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to "World." Distinctions blur. Quit your tents. Pray without ceasing.”
and for her silence in nature click this link.
June 8, 2020
During a time of intense emotions across the country, with so many people angry, many sorrowful, and many fearful, our innate capacity to regulate feeling states is put to the test. Again, emotions are contagious. The practice of meditation over time strengthens that natural regulation of the body and its ability to adjust its responses to shifting tones and changing environments. The physical relaxation that is part of meditation, lowers our physical tension and the lowered tension signals the brain that the body is not in immediate danger or threat, so our thinking and feeling states calm down. The meditation focus also allows a distancing from both thoughts and emotions; we find we can observe them with a different quality of awareness, an equanimity and poise, from a calm center. That calm center may fade into the background as we continue our day, but it is increasingly available as we remember it and return.
We enter a phase where we will "see-saw" between this calm spiritual awareness and our reactive and shared emotions. There are times when the calm within us is the rock around which all the waves of emotions crash--we can be a strength and a solace for others. At other times--and perhaps in those moments it really is in our best interests to so be--we are wholly human, giving way to the depth of emotion of humanity, and we must look to a Higher Power to bring us to peace. This is its own form of "giving way". And we find ourselves lifted and stronger.
(Susan Nettleton)
June 9, 2020
Wellness is a cornerstone concept in preventative health. We know the current recommendations and mandates in our cities to prevent further spread of the Covid-19 virus, and those may change, as they have several times over the months of the Pandemic. This is not the time to be careless with the protection of ourselves and others as we begin to open outward. It is also a time to remember the spiritual dimension of healing and principles that are basic to wellness, health, and healing.
From hillsidesource.com
"...there is another way to approach spirituality, not as a “component of your wellness plan”, but as the very ground of health. Spirituality can be experienced as a recognition that life springs from a Unitive Source retaining its mystery, order, intelligence and creative power that surpass human knowledge and control. It is the source of “wellness” that encompasses all healing, even medical intervention. Wellness then includes the capacity of life, in all its perplexing forms, to repair, renew, and heal: Life takes care of life. To manage the complexity of society, to communicate, and for the sake of our partial piecemeal understanding of the vastness of existence, we divide the whole into the parts. ... (here, we can) explore spirituality as our capacity to heal, make-whole, and take care." (Susan Nettleton)
“Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.”
— Chuang Tzu
Here is a place to begin:
June 10, 2020
As more states report spikes in new Covid-19 cases, they continue to reopen while encouraging masks and social distancing. It is clear that we plan on coping with the Pandemic for quite some time. Depending on your local community, you may have begun your own re-entry process. This is a good time to reaffirm your commitment to a deeper spiritual practice as you re-evaluate how you will be participating as society opens outward. Again, certain parts of the country and the world may have to step back into strict lock-down at times, while certain parts will move forward. We may continue to have to shift.
Even in the best of times, unless we are in a monastic environment, living from a spiritual perspective naturally involves a process of shifting from the interior world of silence and prayer to the outer world of commerce, roles, and social structures on a daily basis. Having a dedicated space for your spiritual practice actually helps you make the shift from one mode of being to another, until you are clearly planted in a spiritual perspective wherever you are, whatever is happening. It seems to me a good time to to assess the physical space where we meditate, pray, perhaps study or write, and open to creative resources within. This is the space that seeds the atmosphere of peace and healing. Ideally, it gives you a sense of the privacy of your interior life and yet holds reminders of the larger spiritual body of which you are a part. It may be a tiny corner for you and your chair or cushion, but over time, entering that space will immediately invoke the peace, spaciousness and freedom of the Transcendent.
I imagine that these months of lock-down have brought you insight and experiences that sooner or later will be reflected in your physical space. Consider the images and objects that will continue to speak to you of peace, of stillness, of silence, throughout the time of Pandemic and whatever events are yet to unfold. (Susan Nettleton)
June 11, 2020
Today marks 2 months of intensive posting on maintaining a spiritual focus during the Covid-19 Pandemic. I began on April 11, after 1 month of lock-down here in California. Things certainly have progressed in various ways and I do affirm that we know more about the virus and it's spread than we did when the Pandemic began. Yet, there is much more that needs to be understood in terms of curtailing and ending this world crisis. We have much more to discover about preventing future pandemics as well and making decisions on how we will proceed from now--how our local communities, our country and the world will change.
I maintain that those who can hold a spiritual perspective, based on unity, oneness, and individual religious freedom, continue to have positive impact on unfolding events--in both our personal, individual lives, the lives of our immediate relationships, and the larger collective field. For now though, although I will continue to post frequently, I won't be posting daily. I plan to return to daily posts when circumstances demand it. I am currently exploring the possibility of holding an online, Sunday service through Zoom. Those of you who are on the Hillside mailing list will shortly receive a postcard through regular mail regarding this. Those of you who are on the Hillside email list will receive the email version. And I will include the postcard text on a facebook post for those who are not on either and, most likely, I will post a facebook event page when something is actually scheduled. More tomorrow... (Susan Nettleton)
June 12, 2020
For those of you who did not receive an email with this information on a Hillside Zoom Sunday Service, here's the preliminary info. (No scheduled date yet; if you want an individual invite, email us)
JOIN US ONLINE
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour
After much consideration of the changes the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought to our communities, I plan to offer a Zoom online Sunday Service. Unfortunately, Zoom communication does not lend itself to traditional mail. I am asking any who are interested in meeting online to email the church at hillsideew@aol.com. That will allow us to email Zoom invitations with the meeting registration number, the I.D. and passwords. Notices for Online Services will not be mailed. If you don't have email, or have limited computer access or are new to Zoom, you can find information, schedule, and phone no. for call-in at hillsidesource.com/Zoom. Schedule information, when available, will be on our office answering machine message at (505) 254-2606. It will also be posted on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheHillsideSource/, where I post spiritual support during the Pandemic. For those who do not use facebook, we will upload all posts to the website at: https://hillsidesource.com/the-still-point-of-the-pandemic-….
The Pandemic brings many changes to our lives that are painful and no one knows how long the Pandemic will last and how long these changes will last. Spiritual practice is a key to adapting and healing, as Hillside continues to be a support in your spiritual journey. Peace, Susan
June 13, 2020
Earlier this week, I wrote about the shift from the medical/psychological concept of spirituality as a 'component of wellness', to a spiritual healing perspective, where the spiritual is the ground of wellness. There is a similar shift that happens with meditation. We begin with meditation being one of our "healthy" activities, but at a certain point, meditation practice begins to shift to being central to our life, that core out of which the rest of our daily life proceeds.
From a public health point of view though, especially during this Pandemic and the weight of the sheer magnitude of the consequences of Covid-19, it makes sense to encourage people to maintain basic health practices along with the special protocols of masks, social distancing and hand-washing. There are different models for wellness, but one that is researched-based prescribes the five components of: a mindfulness or meditation practice, a healthy diet (nutrition), sleep, exercise, and social connections. Interestingly, all five practices, when done consistently over time, have been shown to reduced inflammation. Medical research has demonstrated inflammatory processes play a role in a variety of illness, including Covid-19.
These are all still emerging ideas within medical and mental health science, but worth our re-evaluating the ways that we take care of ourselves, whether we are in lock-down or re-entry mode. Along with the centrality of meditation, some consistent practice of nutrition, sleep, exercise and social connection--wellness practices and routines-- help our lives have a consistency that bridges the times of stability and the times of disruption. (Susan Nettleton)
June 14, 2020
For this Sunday, I turn to two passages from Jnaneshwar, the "King of Saints", poet, philosopher and yogi of India. In his short life span, Jnanseshwar was the first to translate the Bhagavad Gita, written in the then secret sacred language of Sanskrit. in Marathi, a common language, making the text widely available. He then wrote a brilliant commentary in over 9,000 verses which remains a classic text in Avaita Vedanta (non dualism) philosophy. These passages are from Two Suns Rising, A Collection of Sacred Writings, by Jonathan Star (1992). (Susan Nettleton)
Jnaneshwar (1271-1293)
Krishna:
"If it is said that I am concealed by the existence of the world, then who is it that blossoms in the form of the world? Can a red jewel be concealed by its own luster? Does a chip of gold lose its goldness if turned into an ornament? Does a lotus lose itself when it blossoms into so many petals? When a seed of grain is sown and grows into an ear of corn, is it destroyed or does it appear in its enhanced glory? So there is no need to draw the curtain of the world away in order to have my vision, because I am the whole panorama."
"Therefore, giving up the conception of difference, a person should know Me alongside himself. He should not regard himself as different from Me, as a speck of gold is not different from the whole block of gold. He should understand well how a ray of light, though proceeding from an origin, is continuous with it. Like molecules on the surface of the earth, or flakes of snow on the Himalaya, all individual souls dwell in Me. A ripple, small or great, is not different from water. So he should know himself as not different from Me. Such insight is call Devotion. This is the supreme knowledge the essence of all Yoga."
And from the Bible:
"I am the vine, ye are the branches." (John 15:5)
June 17, 2020
As we move into summer, more specific guidelines as well as risk assessment scales for Covid-19 are being posted. At the same time, Covid-19 cases are dramatically rising in those states that rapidly re-opened and those areas with little regard for guidelines and risks.
In a way, the refined guidelines and scales are signs of our increased understanding of how the virus actually spreads through a community and affirmative of our capacity to make the changes that we must make to lessen contagion. While the reasons people resist these guidelines are many and complex, the urgent push to end "safer at home" policies is primarily driven by the fear of financial disaster. Realistically, millions of people have lost jobs (over 40 million have applied for unemployment in America alone) and many others' job future remains uncertain. The collective path before us now seems to be one of finding ways to maintain the practices that can limit spread of the virus while at the same time enabling society to "return to work" and commerce in order to bolster the economy.
How do we face economic upheaval, from a spiritual perspective? You and I as individuals are not going to solve the conundrum of global economics in a global pandemic and it's ripple effects through local communities, families and individuals. But as has been the way of these posts, we can still apply spiritual principles of consciousness and positive participation. And we can open our inner doors to receive insight and guidance for our own financial stability.
One place to begin is to bring our financial well-being into our spiritual reflection on our core values. This is not as superfluous as it may sound, because we carry many beliefs and expectations that are not from our deepest sense of self. Rather we have all been indoctrinated in one way or another about money, about jobs, about material goods, about what we should want and supposedly need. We carry attitudes about others who have more money than we do and those who have less. We carry our religious upbringing and/or spiritual approaches toward money and work that may or may not be compatible with our own longings, fears and sense of responsibility.
To move through this life changing, social/culturally changing, and economically changing time, with a deep sense of peace, means seeing as clearly as we can, for ourselves, what things matter most now.
No one can tell you that...only the intelligence of your innermost heart. That is where we begin to build. (Susan Nettleton)
June 19, 2020
The question of how to face economic upheaval from a spiritual perspective is not new, even though the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought uniquely complex hardships to the 21st century world. All religions address the relationship between the spiritual dimension, the material world, the world of work, and the necessary resources to sustain the life of the individual and the community. Underlying these principles is the idea of putting first things first: devotion and commitment to the Source of all things. This primary principle is supported by codes of ethics and morality as guides for navigating our relationships with others and handling life's resources.
Even though cultural climates may change from place to place and from religion to religion in a way that makes some practices seem strange to outsiders, there is the ring of concordance regarding "first things first "and standing on spiritual ground, right action, whatever the transaction. Yet, as humans in a maze of materialism, we can easily lose sight of our own values. We certainly live in a culture that easily forgets the solidity of these principles, often actively seeks to obscure them, and can openly disdain them. So the ground of economy and commerce shakes and sways with events.
Sometimes you have to return to solid ground alone, as an individual. You handle the fear and pressure, bit by bit, returning again and again to an affirmation of your resilience and competency, because Life is resilient and competent. There is no lack of resources for you, because you are infinitely Creative. You are intimately connected to all of life, in a magnificent economy of exchange, in a mysterious network of reciprocity, and one boundless Source of All. (Susan Nettleton)
“Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart's desire.”
― Emmet Fox
June 20, 2020
We examine the contents of our own beliefs and attitudes about money and finances to uproot ideas that feed fear and pessimism. This doesn't mean ignoring the facts or the numbers, but rather moving beyond the interpretations that we are rehearsing. We come to see our own history in the context of culture and commercialism, as well as our spirituality. If we want to be open solutions and a path of financial well-being, then it makes sense to maximize our strengths and let go of ideas and practices that do not support our intent. Again, we learn to control what we can control and not wring our hands in worry about what we cannot control.
Contrary to the idea that money is the focus of financial well-being, from a spiritual perspective, money is a man-made construct. Money is not part of the natural order of life. It is a man-made abstraction, an extension or tool to control what is a natural process: the exchange of goods and services between people. Ultimately this is an aspect of the life principles of exchange, circulation and reciprocity that operate on many levels of life: environmentally, physiologically, chemically, emotionally, the activity of communication--even the natural regulatory mechanisms between people and other forms of life.
Money seems so real and fundamental, but actually it is an abstraction Early cultures lived by barter trade. At some point in ancient history, the market value of goods or services was standardized in the creation of money. Cash and coins had more of a concrete reality, but even then value often "floated". Now the construct of money is even more ephemeral; it is about numbers stored in accounts, managed through computer programs. It is no wonder that it continues to cause so much anxiety. Even if you still trade only in cash, there is no long-term social guarantee that cash is reliable.
Consider that a spiritual solution to financial difficulty may lay beyond the man-made level of money. That doesn't mean that resolution cannot come through money, it means that money is a tool. I am remembering a Zen quote, that is more about spiritual practice, not financial healing, but it's applicable here in spiritual practice during financial upheaval:
"To point at the moon a finger is needed, but woe to those who take the finger for the moon."
D.T. Suzuki (echoing Buddha's teaching)
June 21, 2020
This Sunday’s post from British poet Edith Sitwell is an addition to last Sunday's text by Hindu Jnaneshwar on the Allness of God. It is reminder on Father's Day, that God, often envisioned as the Divine Father is that and more. This is a 5 1/2 minute video; the complete text of the poem is repeated at the very end. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link below
June 24, 2020
One way to approach financial difficulty spiritually is to shift our idea of money as the ultimate solution. Money is the default solution of our society. But if money is indeed only a tool, then we are not getting to the root of our problem of need. Whenever your thought locks on to only one possibility, one solution to a problem, you continue to box yourself in tighter and tighter. You are not free to pursue or intuit creative possibilities beyond that one fixed idea, especially in this time of Pandemic with so many voices focused on selling you solutions that underneath echo both threat and fear.
Spiritual traditions for centuries have instead taught the concept of spiritual supply. They may not use that term, more common in New Thought, but the idea is there that God provides. The Source of life includes all that is needed for the maintenance of life. But the means and conditions of that maintenance are not dictated by creatures, nor in particular human beings, but by the nature of Creation and, I am adding by Life's ongoing creative capacity and process.
The more rigid our ideas about what is needed to maintain our own lives, the less accessible we are to the creative possibilities that exist within every situation. Spiritual supply is not about fretting about money. It's about openness, flexibility and positive expectation that what is needed in the specific moment or situation, is provided.
There is no easy path to that kind of faith, There are so many logical arguments that undercut it, in a fixed reinforcement of humanity's history of both accumulation and neglect. Individually though, we can practice faith in the generosity of Life and it's Source. We can pray for and accept supply that comes in ways we know and in ways we never expected, whenever we feel the need. We can dwell on our gratitude for all the ways our life has been sustained. And we can stay open to creative solutions as they unfold. (Susan Nettleton)
June 25, 2020
In America this week, we have seen sudden dramatic resurgence of Covid-19 related to re-opening of businesses and the failure to maintain the basic protection of masks, social distancing, and safer- at- home policies. Many areas still continue to strive for a balance between the need for isolation and the need for an economic revival that includes work-related income. Some regions have now backtracked away from the economic demand and encourage staying at home; some regions have opted for standstill--not taking any forward steps from their early attempts at reopening but not regressing either; many areas are still in watching/waiting mode, as cases rise. The question seems to be what are we, as a society, willing to risk: further economic disasters, or further health tragedies?
Yet there are no simple answers because these are not independent variables. They impact one another. Stay-at-home is about preventing illness. Illness is costly, financially and in other ways. If we are ill, we are not productive. We lose effectiveness: The body will come first or we simply cannot function. When we are talking about large numbers of a social body becoming ill, some requiring weeks and weeks of recovery time, and many who do not recover, entire industries are inevitably impacted--not by stay-at-home policies, but by overwhelming illness and death. At the same time, loss of income on a collective scale over time weakens the structure of a community that is dependent on the resources and stability businesses and jobs provide. In modern society, there is a clear cut relationship between lack of income and vulnerability to illness.
Moving through the Pandemic spiritually means seeing beyond any division in the process of healing. Again, these are not two competing processes; we are all interdependent. Looking beyond division also includes looking beyond the division of spiritual and material, of life and its Source. Individual reflection deepens as you look for what unifies. (Susan Nettleton)
June 27, 2020
This morning's news reported an explosion of new Covid-19 cases across the Southern states, beyond even the surges that I wrote about just Thursday evening. On one hand, it is hardly surprising, given the ample warnings we have had from disease specialists that Covid-19 is far from over and will continue to worsen, if people ignore basic health protocols (masks, social-distancing, avoidance of crowds and enclosed spaces...). History tells us that Pandemics last longer than the few months we have so far endured. On the other hand, the strata of social disregard for public health and the damage it is bringing is shocking in the 21st century. Defiance remains an aspect of human behavior that we must face. We have gained the knowledge of effective ways of preventing excess tragedy, illness and loss, even if we cannot yet eradicate the virus. That's a good thing. What is required of us is difficult and frustrating for many people because in a time of great stress, people naturally seek distraction, companionship, and various ways of comfort in the company of others. Time will eventually bring an end to this Pandemic; but for now, the price of ignoring our hard won knowledge is high.
I have been mulling over all of this today, reflecting on how to 'feed the Light' in the face of frightening set backs that were preventable a few weeks ago. Over time, moving beyond the separation, coming to some understanding of human need and weakness, will bring compassion and eventually forgiveness. But pushing any of us to forgive in the face of the shifts and sudden crises, seems too much right now. What came to me instead, is the practice of gratitude. Norman Vincent Peale described forgiveness and gratitude as two sides of the same coin. When you find it difficult to forgive, turn the coin over and practice genuine gratitude for what is here, right now. It is not a stretch to dwell on gratitude and thanksgiving. In fact, it not only feeds the Light but also opens a door to clarity and renewed strength. Try spending the next few days in gratitude. (Susan Nettleton)
With that thought, I offer you this link (click here), to a poem by 20th century poet, e.e. cummings (1894-1962)
June 28, 2020
This Sunday's post is to extend yesterday's idea of practicing gratitude. When events are overwhelming, we can often recover our spiritual ground by focusing on the present moment and what is immediately at hand, rather than trying to take in and process the larger picture of unfolding developments on many fronts. If we are open, we can discover a sense of awe and wonder in the fabric of what is happening right now. Amazement lifts us out of a sense of repetitive disappointments, resentments and fears; ushers in gratitude.
As the Bay Area lockdown began in March 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle asked Mill Valley poet Jane Hirchfield if she would write a poem on her experience of the sweeping shelter-in-place mandate. She responded that just that morning, she had written it, before they asked.
This poem also serves as a reminder to not judge whatever level of positive participation you contribute in the healing of the Whole. Follow the link to the poem.
https://gratefulness.org/res…/today-when-i-could-do-nothing/
June 29, 2020
One further thought today on the practice of gratitude. When we have discovered a well of gratitude within us, as a natural response to this Life of awe and wonder, we have found a source of assurance. Life is Good, All is Well. This is not the same as trying to reassure yourself, and not the same as trying to fix life, through prayer or through personal effort so that everything is ok. There is a time and place for self-reassurance as well as for personal participation in good works, but this is another level. It may be only a fleeting moment, an assurance that arises from gratitude and an appreciation of the Vast, Mystery of Life. It is certainly a motivation to continue a practice of gratitude.
I think it is one of the channels of visionary experiences expressed in the arts. Perhaps it is the root of hope-- and our capacity to image a better future. But the seed is gratitude for the beauty inherent in today.
Here is such a vision from 20th century English poet, A.S.J. Tessimond (1902-1962). It's oddly fitting for an idealistic daydream in the Pandemic world. It holds images that have potential for you, as an individual, to envision for yourself. Follow the link:
July 2, 2020
Yesterday, the state of California took several dramatic steps backwards for 19 counties, reversing reopening policies and re-instituting business and program closures in an urgent attempt to slow the escalating Covid-19 contagion. It was announced that the updated reversal would be in effect at least 3 weeks. In New Mexico, the public health policy that includes mandatory masks has been extended another 2 weeks. Several other states have had to halt reopening plans. All of these swift changes, along with the alarming rise in cases, has increased anxiety and fear for Americans. Most of the fear surrounds health but of course we recognize that again, closures will impact the economy. Financial fear co-mingles with illness fear. The other factor at work in this anxiety is time itself. Collectively, people are tired of waiting--and a particular type of waiting. Waiting with uncertainty. Waiting without control. Waiting in fear.
But is waiting such a difficult thing to do? Waiting runs counter to the pressured lives most people have been living prior to the Pandemic and runs counter to our business models of success. As part of our spiritual reflection on the financial fears, I again turn to some interesting thoughts by writer and spiritual philosopher, Alan Watts. Watts challenged the widely held image of the U.S. as a materialistic nation and culture. Rather, he countered that America actually has enmity toward materialism, pointing to two of the "measures" of the material world: time and space. We seemingly do not value time, because we are always busy trying to outrun it. We seemingly do not value space, because we are always trying to fill it up with more things and more people. Open ended time and open ended space are not comfortable. As Watts put it, "We want to get as fast as possible from one place to another; to get rid of space and to get rid of time." Yet, time and space are essential aspects of the material world. They are essential aspects of the Pandemic world as we adjust to ideas of social distancing and limiting possible viral exposure by spending less time in restrictive spaces with others. When I reread Watts on lockdown, I had a new sense of the wonder of time itself as something to be enjoyed (even in the process of waiting)--the exquisite passage of time, which is the flow of life. (Susan Nettleton)
"Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence." Alan Watts (The Wisdom of Insecurity)
"As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil." Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)
For more thoughts on time from me on our website, follow the link:
https://hillsidesource.com/takingtime
July 3, 2020
Today I am posting our Zoom information. If you would like a personal invite to our Zoom service, please email a request to hillsideew@aol.com. Those of you who have already emailed should have received confirmation and your invite.
"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour
July 4, 2020
Although today, the 4th of July, may bring to the forefront the conflicts that we have had to face in this time of Pandemic, this morning I woke up to the excitement of a pop-up parade announcement. A neighbor had just text the last minute announcement! We hurriedly dressed the kids in red, white and blue, found our masks and ran outside to wave and cheer the city's car parade rolling down our street. It was a touching testimonial to the creativity that hides in crisis.
Depending on where you live and the intensity of the Covid -19 surges, the day may be celebrated with an affirmation of tradition: picnics, barbecues, patriotic parades and fireworks. But there are many protests, "boycotts", and counter protests planned. While in those areas currently on the verge of Pandemic crisis, public events have been cancelled; many of us will be watching virtual fireworks. Inevitably, others will ignore the Covid-19 mandates to seek crowded parties and excitement. Through all these differences, we as a people strive to define and re-define American freedom as the devastating Pandemic continues to run wild.
To maintain a spiritual focus (and a center of calm that attends it), July 4th is a time to consider a spiritual perspective on freedom and independence. I have continued to emphasize our interdependency as we move through the Pandemic. This is a global Pandemic. The spiritual recognition of interdependency as a given in life is extremely important for the collective spirit needed for all of life to heal. Yet, each person is unique. The quality of uniqueness of the individual, contributes to the whole. Spiritual freedom is the freedom inherent in uniqueness that at the same time, is aware of itself as a partial expression of the Allness of life. It is that quality of life's expression that is not dependent on changing society to conform to oneself, nor changing oneself to conform to society. It simply is. So with spiritual freedom we step outside the struggle with the social order of things, and yet, we play our part. (Susan Nettleton)
To look at different sides of this kind of freedom, follow these links from our website:
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/25/spiritual-freedom (Larry Morris)
https://hillsidesource.com/affirmation-prayer-for-freedom-from-the-past (Susan Nettleton)
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/24/spiritual-independence (Larry Morris)
July 5, 2020
For this Sunday's post, I propose a day of Peace. After all the fireworks and speeches, the contrasting images of yesterday, the case data reports, the warnings and dismissals, it's time to rest.
If your day does not allow for rest, then slow it down a bit. If you cannot slow it down, slow down in thought and emotions to find that point of Peace, the still point within you, a moment here, a moment there... That point doesn't really change location; it's within you wherever the day takes you. Unseen, new life is sprouting everywhere.
Here is a link to a poem by contemporary poet Marge Piercy--a starting point and itself a meditation on the unseen process of growth. (Peace, Susan Nettleton)
https://www.best-poems.net/marg…/the_seven_of_pentacles.html
July 8, 2020
On Monday, in a Facebook and Twitter livestream program, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. A. Fauci, and the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. F. Collins, both offered a reassuring message about American's ability to endure and come through the Pandemic. While they re-emphasized the importance of "the simple and straightforward" recommendations: wearing masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing, and avoiding cramped spaces indoors, they both spoke to the importance of attitude. Dr. Collins encouraged us all to have confidence in our ability to see the process through-- to "keep your optimism, your hope and do the right thing." Dr. Fauci urged people to stop the "binary" thinking that sees following health protocols as obstacles to reopening the economy and creates an attitude of "it's us against them". Rather, he emphasized seeing "the public health effort as a vehicle and a pathway to get to safe reopening” and the clarity to see that indeed, "we are all in this together".
It struck me how well their comments reinforce some of the ideas that I have presented here in these posts as essential to a spiritual focus in the Pandemic: Healing the Pandemic is a unitive process--Life's one movement bringing waves of change. Spiritually, we can choose to view this as one healing movement, or we can see it as endless conflict leading to doom.
We can continue to "feed the Light" as we affirm our personal health and resilience, and the continued supply of all that is needed to thrive. Then extend that affirmation to all. We can affirm our willingness and capacity to follow health practices with good judgement and wisdom as the pathway to "reopening" our lives and the lives of all. And we can affirm the creative possibilities that even now are revealing themselves to us and others, bringing unexpected solutions as our world heals. (Susan Nettleton)
July 10, 2020
The recent dramatic escalation of new Covid-19 cases has increased health anxiety. It seems a good time to remember that a spiritual focus in life includes an awareness and appreciation of our physical body. There are religious traditions that still teach that the highest spiritual states disregard the physical world and therefore they dismiss the human physical body as problematic to spiritual attainment, Yet, all major religions as well as indigenous spiritual traditions have their ways of physical healing.
One of the greatest gifts of my medical training was a new awareness of the complexity, intricacy and wondrous intelligence of the human body and it's regulatory systems. The way the body's parts fit together and function, the physiology, basic anatomy. and cellular processes still fascinate me. To me, study of the physical body is spiritual study; awareness of the body is spiritual awareness. The division is artificial.
With health anxiety, there is often an increased focus on the physical body, but a focus that comes from fear and fear-based watchfulness. We have been regularly informed of the growing list of symptoms of Covid-19 and different geographical areas have their criteria for testing. We are told to be watchful. But this is also good time to move beyond illness fear, and consider the spiritual significance of your body as part of your self care and part of your spiritual practice. What does your body have to communicate to you, beyond signals of contagion? What does it need right now? Conscious inner "scanning" the body while you remain in a relaxed state is another form of mindfulness meditation. As in other forms of mindfulness, you can give your attention to your body, listening with reverence and awe. (Susan Nettleton)
July 11, 2020
To contemplate and attend to our physical body as a spiritual practice also means waking up to a new sense of being alive. The Pandemic, understandably, has brought our collective and individual attention to a focus on illness and death, To move beyond this, much is required of us.
With all the changes and choices we are facing, let's not forget a vibrant awareness of our own aliveness. Perhaps the greatest attitude we can hold, is a renewed spirit of aliveness, that includes delight and enthusiasm. It may seem like an impossible task for now, but attending to our physical well-being is a beginning step. Aliveness is more than just the physical though, it is an energy that quickens our positive participation in life. This is not about rehearsing our fear of loss, but the affirmation of life and it's joy and beauty, the savoring of life's sweetness--even on lockdown.
Along with the questions to ask while listening to your body that I posted yesterday, consider this question by theologian, author and activist Rev. Howard Thurmond. (1899-1981)
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”― Howard Thurmond
July 12, 2020
For this Sunday post our question remains from yesterday, "What makes you feel alive?" Here is a link to a poem by contemporary poet David Whyte. It feels particularly relevant in the time of Pandemic, when many carry the burden of "crisis fatigue". (Susan Nettleton)
https://wordsfortheyear.com/…/sweet-darkness-by-david-whyte/
July 15, 2020
God's delays are not God's denials, is a well-known antidote for the impatience and despair that can sometimes accompany prayer. It is meant to put our human angst in perspective. Not all longing is instantly fulfilled by prayer, traditional or affirmative. Here is a reminder that if we turn to the Source of life for healing and solutions, for comfort and reassurance, we move outside the framework of society's calendar and clock. That does not mean that urgent need cannot be met by prayer, but that, again, prayer is a process of change, and we are the one that changes.
When we are on a lake in a small rowboat and want to change direction, it's fairly simple. We shift the angle of the boat with our oar and row toward our destination. But if we are on a huge cruise ship or massive battleship, in the ocean with choppy seas, you are not going to turn that ship quickly, The intricate measurements involved in steering such a vessel, the timing and speed, must integrate with the force of wind and water to turn safely. With prayer, the choppy sea is a metaphor for our own shifting emotions and thoughts, our confusion and fear, our resentments and pain, our desires, our conflicts and sense of separation from life, from ourselves, from each other and from God, or the spiritual level.
This seems particularly significant right now, as we find the Covid-19 virus rapidly surging across the country and many places face significant set backs in what a few weeks ago seemed to be progress. Sometimes it may feel that you are in that row boat alone in your longing, frustration and fear. But this is illusion. We are all on this ship with our neighbors, our city, our country and indeed, the world. When you can't find your light or your peace, rest assured that someone also on that ship holds it for you. Someone (more than one, really) will hold your peace, until you find it again. (Susan Nettleton)
July 18, 2020
Today's post takes us to Jack Correu's Little Shack of Insight for his June insights on handling anxiety during the Pandemic in his post "Little Shack Shakes Off Anxiety". Follow the link below:
July 19, 2020
This is a reminder of the Zoom Sunday Service this Sunday, July 19, for those of you who are not on the email list. If you don't know Zoom, you can get information from hillsidesource.com/zoom and a link for basic instructions.
In keeping with today's Sunday Zoom Service, I am posting a link on renewal, from our website:
July 20, 2020
For a further thought on "feeling alive" from Larry Morris follow the link below.
July 22, 2020
While thinking about all the set backs in the Covid-19 surges, the abrupt necessity to pull back on re-opening measures and return to closures and lockdowns, a phrase kept running through my mind..."What I said to the wanting creature...." but I could not recall anything further. Then I realized, of course it was haunting me because of my sense of the collective fear, disappointment and frustration at the setbacks...the intensity of "wanting" to move forward, "wanting' to be free of the seriousness and responsibility involved in everyday life with the pandemic, "wanting" to return to normal, "wanting" a care-free summer. So I turned to the hint my memory was offering and a quick search found the poem. Of course, it was Kabir, translated by Robert Bly:
Here is a link with Kabir's point of view:
July 23, 2020
Social distancing is not isolation, neither is it withdraw. As the Pandemic surges through the summer, we are being warned that it is likely to continue through the fall. Beyond that, we really do not know, but even with an initial vaccine, it is likely that social distancing will continue for awhile to some degree. It is all speculation at this point. For now, if we want to safeguard our health and do our part in slowing down the virus, while resuming a more active life outside our shelter, we learn to navigate social distancing and face masks. In someways, these first 4 - 5 months have been experimental, a process of learning how to manage what is needed. We have gained experience, but this is a huge cultural shift for Americans. Many still refuse the shift.
I have been thinking about this since going on a family outing last weekend to a large county park that has remained open. Given the escalation of the virus in L.A. county, and the mandates, I was shocked to see large numbers of people without masks and without regard for physical distancing. I am used to encountering neighborhood walkers and runners without masks, but in general they maintain physical distance. I make it a point of spiritual practice to observe my own reactions as I walk, and I've chosen to take the lead in giving a lot of space to those also out on the streets. They are neighbors; there is no need on either part to feed resentment.
However, as I watched the groups of "strangers" in the park, I found myself having to stretch to find the same attitude of deference. Yet, I know on a spiritual level, there is nothing to be gained by participating in polarization, or judgment, or even my interpretation of why some people adapt to the change and others resist or ignore the need. Finally, I found a way to relax into the day (with lots of open green grass available) and decided to trust my instincts while maneuvering around cars and bicyclists, party groups and families. I realized I don't have to carry the burden of outcome for all the people I watched. We are all participants in this phenomenal movement of life in this time of Pandemic, and all aspects of the One Life. We do what we can, and let go. (Susan Nettleton)
July 24, 2020
This piece entitled "Peace is Possible" by Buddhist monk, author and poet, Thich Nhat Hanh, offers an unusual metaphor for our polarized Pandemic culture. It is a excerpt put in poetic form from an address to the U.S. Congress on "Leading with Courage and Compassion" Sept. 10, 2003 aimed at offering a space for moral and spiritual reflection. We too can enter that space as leaders of ourselves and our times of interaction with others: Those we know and those who are strangers, ultimately are included in the "Body of God". (Susan Nettleton)
follow the link:
July 29, 2020
When the news reaches a fever-pitch, as it has done over the past few days, it's a good time to return to a deeper silence. It does help to disengage from the news temporarily, trusting that whatever you need to know, you will know, when it's time to know it. I was reminded of this yesterday morning as I peaked at the news on my phone and a counter phrase came into my mind, "After the wind...after the earthquake....after the fire came a still small voice". This is the Bible story of Elijah's encounter with God in the wilderness cave.
The back story deals with Elijah's role as a prophet and his struggle to free the Hebrew people from false gods imposed on the country by the King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Following a stunning victory by Elijah, which led to great bloodshed, Jezebel vows to have Elijah killed. The prophet is suddenly seized by fear for his life and frantically runs to the mountains to hide. There he is devastated by self blame and failure. But an angel appears who brings food and drink and, acknowledging his lack of strength, tells him to rest. He is able then, to travel further into the wilderness until he comes to the sacred mountain and a meeting with God.
Here is the passage (I Kings 19: 11-13): ...And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake there was a fire but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came a still small voice. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”…
There are, of course, different levels to the story. From the perspective of the still point of the Pandemic world, we return to the sacred, our inner cave of reflection, beyond 'wind', and 'earthquakes' and 'fires', to a still small voice.
In his encounter, Elijah is told to "return the way that you came". He must re-enter the world, but he is given a new plan and a renewed spirit. (Susan Nettleton)
August 1, 2020
I have been thinking about different forms of silence. There are natural and "unnatural" forms of silence, There is a transcendent silence, There is silence as metaphor...Destructive silence, obstructive and judging silence, fearful silence, loving and healing silences...the silence that implies stillness...
The mandated quarantines and lockdowns when in full force give rise to both unnatural and natural silence. In the earlier days of lockdown, I wrote about the unexpected return of natural sounds (and sights!) brought about by human withdrawal. Much of that receded as people, cars, and machines returned to the streets. Within our homes, particularly for people who live alone, the sounds and sights of T.V., radio, phone conversations, recorded and live Zoom or podcast programing--all provide human voices, images, and movement that create a kind of emotional and physical reassurance to our senses. Instinctively, we feel all is well; we are in the company of others. It's important to remember that human beings are social creatures and in times of danger, we naturally seek companionship and the reinforcement of tribe protection, even if by facsimile. Constant dead silence in a room or dwelling place, seems unnatural.
So it may seem paradoxical that we seek silence through meditation, and yet it is a tremendously healthy and satisfying activity, if we approach it also as natural. There are many way to define meditation and meditation is not always about silence. But one way to see silent meditation is to consider it as a natural, periodic disengagement from a world of sensory stimulation and cultural demands. There is a naturalness to interpersonal, mutual support and a naturalness to individual awareness of our own, unique "bio-system" of spiritual sustenance. This means that you learn to trust that your body and your mind know how to open to the silent transcendent outpouring and individual intake of spiritual silence.
In time, you begin to have the experience of this silence, "descending upon" you, at unexpected times, and in unexpected places beyond your meditation practice. The silence, draws you into itself, into stillness, to bring whatever is needed in the moment.
Eventually you realize, as one early Buddhist nun put it, "The feast of meditation never ends".
(Susan Nettleton)
August 2, 2020
As a follow up on yesterday's post on silence, this Sunday, I direct you to a well-known poem by Kahlil Gibran. Although it was written as a spiritual description of marriage, to me it speaks to human relationships and community in general. We travel the path of inseparable connections, while at the same time, being individual "units". Re-reading it from the point of view of this Pandemic, it offers a spiritual perspective on maneuvering social encounters as well as maintaining our closest relationships. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link below:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148576/on-marriage-5bff1692a81b0
August 5, 2020
I have been considering different aspects of silence, since I am encouraging meditative silence as a spiritual antidote to the Pandemic noise of jarring news and controversy. Meditation of course offers more than respite from information overload, and as a Zen adage cautions, "when it's noisy, don't disturb the noise." We don't want to add to our challenge of finding calm in the Pandemic storm by ourselves fighting with the dissonance, in society or within our own thoughts. In meditation, silence is the disengagement from the external world and our thoughts about it. The external world though, is under no obligation to calm down as we calm down, although surprisingly, it often does, at least for a little while. Those small moments of true silence, condition us for more extended stays, building a familiarity that welcomes both inner and outer peace..
When I first settled into this living space with family in California, I browsed a local shop for a few things to brighten my quarters and found a bin of signs. While I am not usually a fan of sign decor, one leaped out at me as the perfect directive as I set up my space in this boisterous household. You see it below.
There is a calm, silent center already within us. We don't really create it; we give it room to expand. We turn to meet it and it thrives. (Susan Nettleton)
August 6, 2020
Because meditative silence is a form of disengagement from the external world and its sensory input, it is linked to the idea of the unseen and the dark. I am not referring to "the dark" in terms of emotional or moral "darkness", but rather to dark that implies rest and protection. I have written quite a bit about the spiritual focus of feeding the light and now in our exploration of silence, I touch the idea that the light can be fed by times of the "dark" as the unseen, the unheard.
Rilke wrote, "What we owe to silence, makes our ripening exact." Whenever I think of this quote, I think of a tomato, ripening in a paper bag. The tomato produces its own ethylene gas to promote ripening; the bag provides the containment of the gas and protects the tomato, while still allowing air flow. The unseen, the dark is also an aspect of the creative process of new life, in gestation as the embryo "ripens" toward birth, and the seed, hidden in underground darkness, sprouts and pushes upward to receive the light of the sun. Rilke's quote is actually translated into English from his German translation of a French poem, "Palm" by Paul Valéry. Another, direct English translation of the "Palm" poem reads Valery's idea as:
Patience, patience,...
Every atom of silence
Is a seed of ripeness!
For both poets, Rilke and Valery, silence in solitude is an essential part of the creative process. It is a time of waiting,... of becoming... and an unseen ripening. Trust that your fruits of meditation "self-ripen" in silence. Our part is to "attend".
Rilke (Duino Elegies) advises:
"Be alert for any sign of beauty or grace. Offer up every joy, be awake at all moments to the news that is always arriving out of silence."
August 8, 2020
This evening I am posting a poem from On This Sweet Earth by Larry Morris. It takes us to another aspect of silence and hints of the connection between silence, stillness and nature. (Susan Nettleton)
"Transformation" by Larry Morris
Silence is not the absence
of noise
it's a different kind
of noise
that pierces the heart.
The little bird in the
evening
stillness
is saying
let go
let go
then stops.
When silence seeps
into your bones
you'll
never
be
the same.
August 9, 2020
This poem, also from On This Sweet Earth, takes the relationship between nature and silence further. But the poetic desert is more than the landscape--spiritually, the desert can be an inner state of barrenness, when we doubt, are world weary and spiritually dry. Perhaps that is our path to a deeper realization. The link below the poem carries the thought further, with a reminder: The stillness of nature is the stillness within us. The peace that it offers is discovered through a simple daily practice. (Susan Nettleton)
"Silence in the Desert" by Larry Morris
I hear someone hammering in the distance
and think of the spiritual life that has chipped away
at me all these long years.
Does the desert have a soul or
is it just sun and sky,
hardly any movement
and so much silence.
So quiet even the bird
is reluctant to speak.
Do we hear God in that silence
or just ourselves.
Who is it that speaks when we listen.
Do we go to the desert to find God or
does God lead us to the desert
to find ourselves?
Follow the link to more by Larry Morris at
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/22/stillness
August 12, 2020
There is an article from nature.com that is recently being posted on medical sites, as well as in the general public, that offers various predictive models of how the Pandemic will "play out" in 2021 and beyond. It presents an overview of the known possible factors affecting the Pandemic: human behavior preventions such as social distancing and masks (including the degree of human cooperation), the conditions of immunity (i.e. how long does natural immunity last?...we don't know), how the virus will be affected by winter and flu season and other seasonal viruses...we don't know), how new contact tracing programs will function, and what types of vaccine will emerge (when, where, for whom, and lasting how long?).
The conclusion of the article is that the virus is likely to be with us, somewhere in the world, at different places, at varying times, for an indefinite period (likely some years) beyond 2020. Numbers and severity of cases will continue to be affective by different variables, including the age distribution of the population of a given city or community. Although we have behavioral tools to reduce the spread, how to actually induce human behavior to do what is necessary, remains fragile and, again, uncertain. While the article offers some interesting data, predictive models, and constructs, we are left with uncertainty.
Hence we have the idea of "learning to live with" Covid-19 at least for "some time". The burden of this conclusion though, is softened with the clarity that social distancing, masks and hand washing, when done by at least 50 -65% of the population, make a significant difference in the spread. The article also offers possible breakthroughs in overcoming the pandemic--if immunity turns out to be long lasting and/or a significant long term vaccine is produced. So there are possibilities of hope.
I write all this to add a spiritual perspective. The article does not mention the possibility of new, undiscovered, or creative mitigating factors. While we must pursue scientific solutions with intelligence and discipline, there is so much more involved in this healing and in maintaining health. That "more" begins with open minds AND open hearts that can envision beyond the known. And not losing sight that this a global pandemic, we can continue to focus on ways we can enhance our own lives and the lives of others with renewed stamina, new hope, and new possibilities.
"In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair." Howard Thurman
For further thoughts on Hope by Dr. Larry Morris from our website, follow the link below:
August 14, 2020
Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author Chogyam Trungpa described a spiritual process where “The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute.” “The good news is, there’s no ground.” When you see through the illusions of belief patterns that we have clung to as certainty, as the ground of reality, it can be frightening to be in free-fall. But the interior door has opened to a measureless space, and therefore, there's no danger of plummeting or a banging injury...instead, there is freedom.
I have been thinking of this quote in terms of the seemingly "endlessness" of the Pandemic, which is another level of reality. Yet, there is a similarity here. It may feel like our lives are frozen while the Pandemic rages on, but to move forward when there is high risk, frightening possible consequences, and an uncertain future, can feel like falling though air. As human beings, we have the capacity to build some kind of stable ground, eventually, even after we have crash-landed or things have fallen apart. As an individual, consider this as a time to build your platform for the new, your ground that is flexible, cushioned, with some bounce to it. Whether the Pandemic miraculously lasts just a few more weeks, or reigns for another year or two, what would you like to do or experience tomorrow, how do you want to be this weekend and down the road. Look deeper for aspects to life that are not dependent on whether or not there is a Pandemic. Consider both goals of "doing" and goals of "being". What can you do tonight or tomorrow that is a step of renewed life? That is the space of freedom. (Susan Nettleton)
August 16, 2020
As another aspect of silence, I am posting a link to Jack Correu's blog as he shows us the positive potential of silence in the space of relationships, especially when conflict arises! (Susan Nettleton)
https://hillsidesource.com/musings/2019/8/8/little-shack-stops-having-the-last-word
August 19, 2021
A friend of mine recently send me a quote by the great Indian Hindu sage, Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950). Ramana's words are their own form of meditation. If you find yourself unable to quieten and find that "still point", consider that not only all religions discharge themselves, but thoughts too will discharge themselves when you no longer wrestle with them.
"There is a state when
words cease and silence prevails.
Silence is the ocean
into which all the rivers
of all religions discharge themselves.
It is the speech of the Self.
That which is, is Silence."
Ramana Maharshi
One final quote to remind us that the times of silence carry their own purpose and potential, perhaps especially in this time of Pandemic. (Susan Nettleton)
"Silence does not mean negation of activity or stagnant inertness. It is not a mere negation of thoughts but something more positive than you can imagine." Ramana Maharshi
August 21, 2020
This is a reminder notice of this Sunday's Service Zoom talk.If you would like to receive Zoom invitations directly to your email, please email us at hillsideew@aol.com or through the website "contact us" tab at hillsidesource.com
Topic: The Mind of Truth by Dr. Susan Nettleton
Time: Sunday, Aug 23, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada), 10:00 AM Pacific
August 22, 2020
Saint Hildegard of Bingen was one of the early visionary Christian mystics (1098-1179). She was a German Benedictine abbess who also excelled as a writer, composer, philosopher, and polymath. This particular excerpt has been read at Hillside many times. I first encountered it in "Cries of the Spirit" edited by Marilyn Sewell, 1991. Reading it again, in the context of the Pandemic and the California wildfires, I had a clearer insight into the way spiritual energy, the Divine Mystery, works creation through human hearts. We feel in our most prayerful moments, grasping for more or better, that we and our world are empty and in need of fulfillment, but perhaps our very longing is an essential aspect of the energy of life as it moves--pulling us, filling us and life around us--with the good. (Susan Nettleton)
Excerpts from Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen*
I am the one whose praise
echoes on high
I adorn all the earth
I am the breeze
that nurtures all things
green
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits
I am led by the spirit to feed
the purest streams
I am the rain
coming from the dew
that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life.
I call forth tears,
the aroma of holy work.
I am the yearning for good.
*edited by Gabrielle Uhlein 1983, by Bear & Company, Inc.
August 23, 2020
This Sunday, I am sharing some of the quotes on truth that I read this morning--for your own meditation on "The Mind of Truth". (Susan Nettleton)
Integrity by Larry Morris
I bow before that fierce honesty,
That knows
no compromise.
Excerpt from:
Lalla-14th Century Indian mystic (Naked Song by Coleman Barks "One Dance")
...This day has been so meaningless.
I feel I can't go on.
When I was with my teacher, I heard a truth
that hurt my heart like a blister,
the tender pain of seeing
something I loved as an illusion...
This was my inward way, until I came
into the presence of a Moon, this new knowledge
of how likenesses unite. Good Friend,
everything is You. I see only God.
Now the delightful forms and motions
are transparent. I look through them
and see myself as the Absolute. And here's
the answer to the riddle of this dream:
You leave, so that we two
can do One Dance.
Follow the link for a poem by Daniel Erway, also known as Nirmala, a contemporary spiritual writer and teacher.
August 26, 2020
I am continuing to reflect on Truth as a key issue in moving through the Pandemic. While preparing my talk last Sunday on "The Mind of Truth", I realized that the Pandemic has brought such a rupture of public trust in truth, that it now seems to me essential to continue to affirm the value of truth. So although I may repeat myself, I want to review aspects of Truth to contemplate and explore as summer winds down and we prepare for an uncertain fall. We start with the basic definition of truth as that which correlates or is in agreement with what is. To speak the truth about the Pandemic is to state what are, in reality, actual qualities and events of the pandemic. If we equate truth with scientific facts, then we are looking at what has been demonstrated as true, through scientific testing, research, and review, meeting the standards set for medical research through precedence and accumulated knowledge. We expect coherence of truth, that is, new facts about the Pandemic fit together--not mirror--but hold together with our understanding of previous Pandemics, and that we gather understanding of the ways in which this Pandemic is different. We expect coherence of truth about the virus itself as new studies are completed and reviewed. Because Covid-19 is a "novel" virus, understanding has wound it's way through different medical frameworks that have had to be revised as new knowledge comes to light. What first seemed to be primarily a respiratory virus is now understood as a multi-system virus, and possibly a blood-vessel illness, with severe inflammatory responses.
One of the amazing truths of this pandemic is the international exchange of research that allows multiple projects across the globe to study various components and rapidly share information with other scientists. Unfortunately, one of the reasons that truth has been distorted is that scientific information has been dispersed, distorted and disseminated through social media so rapidly that scientific precision is lost. Emotions and often the need for attention, over-ride the need for truth. The seriousness of the Pandemic and it's destruction across the country and the world, of course, make every piece of information seem urgent, but we cannot afford to lose sight of truth in a desperate race for answers and solutions.
One of the benefits of finding the Still Point, through meditation and spiritual practice, is to step outside the pressure of urgency that leads to haphazard understanding and undermines truth--both truth as scientific fact and truth as spiritual wisdom. While we may not reach what Evelyn Underhill, a scholar of mysticism, called, "the leisurely-ness of eternity" as she described the peace of sainthood, we can find our own timeless moments, where truth is revealed. The truth is not just "out there", it's in you. The truth that comes from inner calm, is not separate from the facts of the Pandemic. You can move through both levels of life in a re-affirmation of truth.
August 28, 2020
In continuing reflection on truth and the Pandemic, I feel the need to simply state that the further away we move from truth, the greater the threat of the Pandemic. At the same time, it's important to realize that arriving at the truth of anything is a process that leads us to seeing layers or perspectives of reality. We put boundaries around reality--"what is"--so that we can limit the parameters of our search for understanding. We aim for the essential pieces to master them them, but none of us hold the Allness in our knowledge. This is the root of conflict between science and spirituality. Scientific facts are pursued in pieces that can be carefully tested and measured. In science, and particularly in medicine, we are trained in objectivity, to experience the object being studied, whether a virus or an ill human being, from the outsider point of view, separate from ourselves as the observer, the clinician, the researcher.
Spirituality, on the other hand, pulls us to be aware that we are not standing outside at all; what is seemingly out there, is happening within the larger whole that we are. The more we try to grasp understanding the more it eludes us. But in stillness and quiet affirmation, it finds us at a level that is specific to us and our need.
We come to realize that our view is partial, that the whole view would have to include the partial view of everyone else, but that is not possible as an individual. So we make our peace with the process of truth, that leads us to this seeing of layers. We learn to trust the value of truth, even though the whole of truth is beyond us. One of the layers is Scientific truth, the facts of studied components of life. It has great importance in a Pandemic, even though it is not the whole of truth. Legal truth is yet another aspect or layer; it has its place in social order. So humanly, truth becomes an array of partial yet meaningful truths, the key word being "meaningful".
When truth is just understood as partial, it can open the door to justification of dismissal, half truths, polarization and outright fabrication that leads to cynicism. Cynicism erodes trust as well as faith in life's goodness, beauty, intelligence and renewing, healing capacity. But when truth is affirmed as meaningful, even though partial, our definitions of scientific truth, legal truth, and ethical truth give our world stability. Spiritually, we can see these collective movements of society, striving for greater truth, as yet another layer of the Real, the Whole, the All. (Susan Nettleton)
August 30, 2020
In the pursuit of truth as humans, we have partial understanding, insight, and revelation. We study the pictures, the things that we know as reality, including ourselves and others, to discern truth. The world and the things of the world reflect the truth, if and when we can see them as they are. The more we align our thinking and experience to genuine openness to the actual, the closer we move to Truth. But there are many aspects to the human experience that move us away from truth. We relish our own ideas from a sense of separateness. Modern society has become so complex that the truth, to borrow from Al Gore, can be "inconvenient". And the truth, as the ancient Hindu poet Lalla lamented, can sometimes be as painful as a blister on the heart. We can deceive ourselves and others because of social pressure and confused value systems. Both desire and fear, emotions that obscure truth, can put us in a place where we in turn are deceived by others out of misplaced trust or even lack of experience. All these factors play a part in the Pandemic, adding to mis-interpretation of information, along with deliberate misinformation. The affirmation of truth as a value, is a compass and a reminder, to stay open to seeing things as they actually are as our attention shifts from concrete reality to transcendent spiritual reality and back again.
In Maya Angelou's both intense and inspiring poem (link below), she lays bare the conflicting images of humanity's struggle to fulfill the "possibility and imperative of learning the truth". Although written in 1995 it's themes of peace and survival apply to our Pandemic world.
https://www.melodicverses.com/poems/32869/A-Brave-And-Startling-Truth
September 2, 2020
There are a few further aspects to truth that we can explore as a way to stretch our own understanding and depth of what truth means and why it is a core value in both religion and social functioning. When we turn to the spiritual level to understand and experience truth, we encounter what seems too abstract. As our inner life--our sense of something greater than ourselves-- draws us to find peace in the daily difficulty and threat of the pandemic, this abstraction though, lends itself to spiritual practice and faith.
Consider these ideas: Theologians, notably Saint Thomas Aquinas, view of the mind of God as the transcendent realm where Truth is not about corresponding to reality, but reality is the out-picturing of Truth. As such, Truth, God, and the creative process supersede our constructs. We can contemplate this Source of life with it's intelligence and patterns, arrangements, creative power, and awareness from the perspective that one of Its names is God, and one of Its other names is Truth. Out of that Truth reality arises. Whether you see the Cosmos and our world as intentional design, with creation and creatures directed as Divine ideas, or as an unfolding process of the Unknown, Un-namable, playing with particles of Itself, without plan, in the Joy of Creation, that is Truth.
For some, this Truth is permanent, fixed and established, unchangeable, objective, consistent: One true God, One Truth, absolute, known only by Divine revelation. On the other hand, from a Taoist perspective, Truth can never be captured as a fixed concept, it is in movement because Life is in movement. As Bruce Lee put it, "All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns."
Here is the bridge: human, societal and scientific truth are partial subsets of transcendent Truth. We are stretching toward Truth as it unfolds, always out of reach for a rigid intellect, but nevertheless, available to us as clarity and intuitive direction when we turn toward it. What begins as our spiritual commitment and consent to know the truth in human situations, invokes the transcendent, and opens to door to truth. (Susan Nettleton)
September 3, 2020
There is another aspect to truth that is voiced by both Jesus and Buddha. Jesus said, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) Buddha said, "Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so the Dharma has one taste, the taste of Freedom.' (Udana) Dharma has a variety of meanings in Sanskrit and this statement has been translated in different English forms. In its larger sense it means the order and way of the cosmos, but it can also refer to the individual path of spiritual practice, duty and discipline. It Buddhism it refers to the totality of Buddha's teachings and instruction. One word English translations often use the word truth. In the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads, it is written: "Therefore, when a man speaks the Truth, they say, "He speaks the Dharma"; and if he speaks Dharma, they say, "He speaks the Truth!" For both are one."
Both Jesus and Buddha proclaim that spiritual practice reveals spiritual truth which in turn brings freedom. I particularly like the phrase, "the taste of freedom" because it implies a subtle test or measure for truth: does it bring that flavor of freedom?
Freedom from what?-- from the burden of illusion, of separateness, of fear and emotional suffering and the strain of a false self. (Susan Nettleton)
September 4, 2020
It's interesting that in these times when truth is being eroded, mindfulness is being promoted. Mindfulness training, when packaged in secular form, is aimed at developing concentration skills, and as an evidence/research based way to manage anxiety and other stress reactions, to improve emotional regulation, aid in addiction recovery, as well as improve social skills and relationships in general. Mindfulness is a component of various other forms of spiritually based meditation and other practices such as yoga. It involves observing and tolerating, thoughts, emotions, and/or sensations (what you see, what you hear, what you smell or taste or touch, body awareness) without judgement, often presented in a meditation format. As such, although it is not framed in this way, it seems to be it is a practice of sitting with the real, the truth. Perhaps it's benefits arise out of a willingness to accept truth, by removing the framework of the judging mind. With mindfulness you are attending to what is, without having to change it, escape it, interpret it, or judge it. The research on the health benefits of mindfulness may be pointing us to a further discovery: humans need truth for health and well-being. (Susan Nettleton)
September 6, 2020
This Sunday I am posting a few affirmations of truth and two more in-depth affirmative prayers that you can change, adapt or combine for your own prayer life.
Affirmations of Truth from the web site: Bmindful Self-help Community:
“My deepest truth sustains me continuously.”
“By living in the present I acknowledge truth in my life. That strengthens me.”
"Flexible curiosity allows me to discover endless truth."
Two variations from me:
1. I am asking for the truth about_______________, and in asking, I receive. I let go and let anything that is obstructing the truth become clear to me. Any obstacle, any false or mistaken information now dissolves; anything that is holding me back now gives way in my understanding. My path (or relationship or condition...) is illumined. I trust the truth. I accept the clear way, as the next step is now revealed. I am receiving the knowledge and understanding needed to move me forward. I relax into the truth with a grateful heart, trusting I am supported as I open to the freedom of truth here and now.
And so it is, Amen.
2. All I need to know now, in this situation (small or large) is made known to me. Within me, there is no barrier to this truth; there is no obstructing power, no fear, no control, no resistance in myself or others involved. I release myself and everyone involved in this situation from the burden of the false. I trust the intelligence and wisdom within me to handle the truth appropriately. I trust the intelligence and wisdom of the Allness of life to handle the truth for others as I release any need to control their truth. Within the depths of each mind and heart, this truth is already present and known by everyone involved. It now comes to light in the best possible way. Life itself is truth; Truth is another name of God. No one stands outside life, no one stands outside of God and no one stands outside Truth. Within and without, this situation is now made clear. And I am thankful. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
For Unity's World Day of Prayer (Sept. 10), you may want to participate with this year's collective affirmation: "Standing on Truth, I move from fear to faith."
And finally, from the Bible, Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you. I will tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know. "
September 10, 2020
It started on Sunday, a concern because California was already burning, but it was still described as an incident brush fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, spreading to 500 hundred acres. The temperature rose to from 112 the day before to 114 on Sunday. By late afternoon, the sky was darkening, the sun was red, and above the ridge, the fire was glowing as it rapidly grew to 1,800 acres. We considered the possibility of leaving, but it was Labor Day weekend and fire reports were still developing, compared to the big picture of California and other fires in the region. It was a long night though, grappling with another threat in the time of Covid-19. We began packing emergency bags until the power went out around 10:30. I sat in blackness in meditation with a battery-powered candle. By Monday morning, the fire was almost 5,000 acres, but the temperature had dropped to a tolerable 98. By Monday evening though, we were on evacuation warning. It's a 3 tier system here, Ready, Set, Go. We were at "be Ready". We kept packing. Tuesday morning the fire had grown to 8,500 acres. We finished packing not sure of how long we'd be gone and what kind of return we would face.
That afternoon we left for a Covid-safety-compliant Air BnB on the coast. Later that evening, we received the emergency text advisory to evacuate. The fire had grown to over 10,000 acres and the Santa Ana winds were looming. Last night as I wrote this, the fire was over 19,000 acres, this afternoon hitting 24,000 acres, but the fire fighters' grueling work to protect the foothill cities has so far kept the expansion away from those areas, as the fire spreads north into the forest. The weather softened a bit, and mercifully, the winds did not reach the full expected force. (Weather and wind are crucial determinants.) The fire remains 0% contained. This is just one fire, the one that personally affects me, but as you know from the news, the western half of the country is...inflamed.
We will watch developments from a distance for a few days further, knowing how these situations can change in a heartbeat. For now, I can only underscore this deep sense that, as with the social upheaval and economic unrest, the fires are not separate from the Pandemic. Humanity is capable of a better way, a way of healing that includes all, the way that Life is all. We are capable of understanding that success means caring for all of life, as we are cared for. I hold much awe and gratitude for those who are facing the flames for all of us. (Susan Nettleton)
September 12, 2020
Thanks to all of you who left comments and continue prayers in this month of fires across the west. Here we continue in watching and waiting mode, including the air quality. As with the Pandemic, watching and reading the updates across the Western states (and our community!) can quickly overwhelm you. I am learning more about the science of fire-fighting and the strategies of containment, as we have all been learning more about medicine, immunity, vaccines and the principles of managing public spread. And, as in the pattern of the Pandemic, misinformation has already been seeded around the fires. Clarity and Truth are necessary for stable ground. So I am reaffirming for all of us, the basic spiritual foundation of balancing the news and outer activity with time in silence in meditation and prayer.
The recognition that we are interwoven with one another and with all of life, all of nature, puts our personal fear in perspective. The way is to bend and flow with Nature's ways and tend to what we can, as we can. When all these events become so complex, our inner direction is the wisest source of guidance. Take the time to sit and listen. (Susan Nettleton)
Here's a taste of silence to balance the intensity. From French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil (1909-1943):
"Our soul makes constant noise, but it has a silent place we never hear. When the silence of God enters us, pierces our soul and joins its silent secret place, then God is our treasure and our heart. And space opens before us like a fruit that breaks in two. Then we see the universe from a point beyond space."
~ Simone Weil Translated by Carol Cosman. From: Random Thoughts on the Love of God, Quoted in 'The Soul is Here for its Own Joy' Ed. Robert Bly
September 13, 2020
For this Sunday I am posting the latest blog post from Jack Correu, from two weeks ago, reflecting on Rumi and preparations for the storm.
Follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/little-shack-rider-on-the-storm
September 19, 2020
We returned last night to our house on the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains, after fire evacuation. We remain under evacuation warning but the fire is now imposing greater threat to the north, into Antelope Valley. As I drove on the LA freeway system, headed back toward the mountains, I watched the columns of smoke rising from both the Bobcat and the El Dorado fires, distinct from the smoky fog surrounding the entire area. I was thinking of two simultaneous texts I receive a few days before, from two deeply spiritual friends, living in very different places. From India, there was simply the comment, "The Never Ending Crisis". It didn't need further elaboration. From the midwest, the message read: "Is this the Apocalypse?"
Despite the re-closures from the Covid-19 surge, the traffic was heavy. Even though the west coast fires have raised the alarm on global warming, the immediate scene showed little ecological concern. I too was one of those drivers. So I thought about Apocalyptic thought and the "Never Ending Crisis". As I have written before, I have chosen to see the Pandemic and the subsequent upheavals of this year, including the fires, as one process and I name it healing. No one model can possibly explain or interpret all the events of life. Life moves beyond our human capacity to hold it all; Life always has something hidden and something in reserve. Yet, human intelligence and the human heart are integral parts of that Life. We hold a reference point and from that point we impact the whole.
As I watched the magnificent trees along the highway towering over us, I felt a point of choice: to give way to human confusion and the fear-based focus on disaster or to surrender and trust that we are inseparable from the natural order and let nature lead. I saw in a new way, how civilizations and groups have formed around nature worship, although modern times have left that far behind. The vastness of the spiritual, the Transcendent, the Source, infolds the Earth and Nature, all that we know and all that we cannot name or comprehend, far beyond the ideas and life of our planet. We cannot go back to a time of Nature-worship, but we can mature in our understanding and acceptance that in the 21st century our well being, our healing, remains dependent on our relationship with Nature. As Larry Morris would say, "The Earth is not your enemy. The earth is your friend." And cannot be ignored. (Susan Nettleton)
September 20, 2020
As further spiritual reflection on yesterday's post and our relationship to Nature as an overarching dimension of human existence and healing, I offer this poem by William Stafford.
Follow the link: https://internetpoem.com/william-stafford/ask-me-poem/
September 25, 2020
I have been considering the ways in which we can begin to heal our relationship with nature as a further aspect of the events of this Pandemic. In California with the recent fires, we were put in a classic double bind. Newer understanding of the airborne spread of Covid-19 includes the critical importance of ventilation, including open windows in homes, moving activities wherever possible outdoors, including exercise, dining, shopping pick ups, and any necessary social interactions to outdoors (along with masks and distancing). But the fires have brought massive smoke and pollutants here with health warnings to keep windows and doors closed and stay inside. With a double bind you face conflicting messages, one negating the other, so that to fulfill one, you must fail the other--either way you will be wrong. In this case health and safety are at risk. Depending on the context, such situations can push people into a confused and hopeless state, where they essentially give up. On the other hand, they have the potential to initiate a creative leap out of the dilemma by seeing things in a new way, beyond the struggle of this or that. As several modern writers have pointed out, Zen teaching koans are often presented as double binds that can exhaust the mind's limited concepts and analytic processes to open intuitive understanding of a larger truth.
As we faced the fire earlier in September, we chose to evacuate to a place away from the fire where we could still maintain the Covid-19 protocols. Returning home as the fire still burns, presented the dilemma of Covid-19 ventilation vs smoke and unhealthy air. It took a few days for this to sink in and to sort out options. The solution was flexibility. An air quality app allows me to open and close windows and doors and have time outside throughout the day, based on the local measurements. It is an interesting exercise in shifting between technology and nature, the threat of contagion and nature's health enhancements, the balance of air, temperature, humidity, wind, humans and animals all flowing in and out. It is not as simple as blending into the natural order, because it incorporates the tools of technology. But there is a rhythm to it, and when seen from a spiritual viewpoint, the dance of life. While I have not had a lightening flash of Zen insight, I am beginning to see this 21st century world in a new light, with new possibilities. The environmental changes that are looming for humanity and nature present all kinds of double binds that we must sort through. Remember that in those seemingly impossible choices that will emerge from climate change, there is the space to leap beyond. (Susan Nettleton).
September 26, 2020
Since I wrote about the double bind experience in the Pandemic yesterday, and the potential to go beyond the fixed confounded dilemmas, I thought would post and illustrative example from Zen (Susan Nettleton):
“When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.”
― Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)
September 27, 2020
Realistically, because modern society and cultural agendas frequently clash with nature's processes, we are often fearful of exploring the wilderness and the wild. We seek peace through security and control. But this poem by Wendell Berry, expresses our capacity to find aspects of the natural world that teach us to let go of our separation and places where we are peacefully at home with wise companions.
September 30, 2020
As September enters October, the stirrings of Fall quicken. Officially we are a week into the change of season, but the temperature here today is 103 and expected to climb tomorrow. Still daylight is decreasing, sending mixed messages across the natural world. We are in a time where the construct of season may require a new definition. Yet as the calendar goes and the days shorten, summer passes and fall begins.
Many weeks ago I wrote about the collective difficulty of coming to acceptance of the Pandemic, looking at the emotional toll of these times through the lens of a process of grief. Since humanity is capable of a wide range of feeling states and responses to change, there are many more facets to the emotional consequences than grief , but the healing process includes acceptance. Healing includes acceptance of our experiences and their integration into our personal and collective history in a way that brings us new strength, peace, and hopefully, wisdom. I wrote previously that we cannot reach acceptance yet, because the crisis is still unfolding--no one can say what our post Covid-19 world will look like. That is still true as we face the fall, with medical warnings of dangerous spread of Covid-19 coupled with flu season and at the same time, areas of the country denying the risk of moving into fall "as usual".
One thing we do know is what Covid-19 brought to summer in our personal lives and in our communities. In the early spread of the virus, there was hope that the summer would bring respite. That turned out to not be so. Serious mistakes were made that cost lives. Some areas of the country self-corrected. Some had their first serious struggles with rapid contagion. Research continued. Treatments continued. Your life continued. We all gained new knowledge in one way or another. It strikes me that this is the time to look back, review the summer of 2020, and forgive. In forgiving, we reconnect to the spiritual aspect of life, because forgiveness underneath is an affirmation of life beyond human ignorance and moral failure. It opens the door to acceptance as well as a peaceful heart, clearing our way to healing. (Susan Nettleton)
October 3, 2020
The last 24 hours has marked another turn of events in the Pandemic in America with the unexpected hospitalization of the President for Covid-19 and a cascade of contagion among
key government officials and staff. In this time of political polarization, social media is ablaze with interpretations, opinions, emotional outpourings and even excitement. My task, as I see it, is to help redirect you again and again to the spiritual ground of your being, that still point that is there not just during the Pandemic, but throughout all times and all of life. Most of us simply cannot stay at that point while everything thing around us feels in upheaval and the news is buzzing--we will go back and forth from the whirlwind of society to moments of spiritual insight and peace. But in those moments of Peace, we are part of the healing of society as well as ourselves. We participate in a spiritual process of healing our community, our country and our world through the Pandemic. Regardless of your politics, let that still point remain a space of healing and well-being for all.
In the words of contemporary spiritual writer Richard Rohr (Radical Grace: Daily Meditations):
“To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we have to have three spaces opened up within us - and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the summary work of spirituality - and it is indeed work. Yes, it is also the work of “a Power greater than ourselves,” and it will lead to a great luminosity and depth of seeing. That is why true faith is one of the most holistic and free actions a human can perform. It leads to such broad and deep perception that most traditions would just call it “light.”'
Remember to feed the Light. (Susan Nettleton)
October 4, 2020
I recently came across this poem by William Stafford (1914-1993) and it seemed to me to point the way to both a discovery of our oneness in the weaving of the world and the significance of individual consciousness in that weaving. It seems just right to further illuminate our possibilities of participating in the world's healing as well as in our own. For a Sunday meditation, follow the link below. (Susan Nettleton)
https://www.susanaprana.com/.../being-a-person-by-william...
October 7, 2020
Here is the information on the next Zoom Sunday Service.
You are welcome to attend. If you wish to receive e-invitations
to Zoom services, you can email your request to hillsideew@aol.com
Topic: "In A Moment" by Dr. Susan Nettleton
Time: Oct 25, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 875 8508 0333
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October 8, 2020
Yesterday, I helped my grandson set up the computer for his online preschool class.
He likes to attend alone, so once the classroom appeared on the screen, I was dismissed. Still, I sat on the steps outside his closed door, because he can't help experimenting with the keyboard during class and inevitably I knew I'd be summoned back with the call,"I lost my school!" Yesterday, I was summoned to retrieve the class image twice.
While I listened behind the door, the teacher impressed me with her ability to hold the class attention, and explain again and again, "If you are ready give me a thumbs up, if you know the answer show me your thumbs up." She explained to the children that she had a new computer and was having trouble with it during the morning class and reminded them of this again, when the video she intended to show failed to appear. Then she smoothly switched to story time. I could hear my grandson excitedly shouting answers and getting frustrated that the teacher didn't call on him while he repeated: "I want to share, I want share!" He had forgotten his microphone was muted until the teacher could see the thumbs up and turn it on from her end. But he remembered and was proudly called on to show and explain his drawing. When the session ended, he left the "classroom" satisfied and happy!
While I sat on the steps I reflected on the Pandemic and the changes and stressors that it has brought--how we have been forced to adapt and learn new skills. All of us have been pushed:
grandparents, parents, teachers, retailers, essential workers, workers at every level, and children. I marveled at the teacher's incredible patience, with the technical difficulties, with the 4 year olds, and the parents (and grandparents) popping in and out to "help". It strikes me in addition to all the other coping tools we need, spiritually and psychologically, patience is essential. It's hard to learn new skills without patience. It's hard to meditate without patience. It's hard to forgive without patience. So today I'm encouraging you to explore a new level of patience in the process of adapting to the Pandemic, beginning with yourself. When you look at what has been required of you this year, I hope you can feel a new self-compassion. Acknowledging how life has changed for all us gives you room to accept that it's difficult and we will make mistakes. We will make less and struggle less, when we can be patient with ourselves first, and then from there, with others. (Susan Nettleton)
October 10, 2020
As we move through October, the November election looms and it will continue to add to the intensity of this month, along with the concern that Covid-19 will surge in the new season.
This morning news points to new surges in several states, including the most recent data for New Mexico. While you sift through the news and sort out your own commitments and participation in the election, this is the time to also refresh and renew your personal protocols for reducing contagion and keeping yourself and others safe. Its easy to succumb to "virus fatigue", having heard all the arguments and opposition along with the continued message to wear masks, social distance, wash hands, avoid crowded and closed unventilated places--the mind and senses naturally overload and stop listening. The psyche is tired of the process. That fatigue is it's own protection of our metaphoric "circuitry". Don't over load the circuits. Rather, hit the refresh button. To do that, our spiritual practices assume renewed importance, along with rest and letting the mind wander to more creative and enjoyable pursuits. I am encouraging patience. A line from the Taoist Book of Changes (I Ching) comes into my mind: "...wait in the calm strength of patience. The time will fulfill itself."
A little search brings me the closing line of the passage, "...the main thing is not to expend one's powers prematurely in an attempt to obtain by force something for which the time is not yet ripe." (Susan Nettleton)
October 11, 2020
This Sunday, I am posting a sprinkling of thoughts on patience. My intent is to lead you to idea that is ripe for you, and in turn, leads you to the well of patience within yourself. That is the space that you can draw on in the weeks ahead, giving yourself time to collect your thoughts and feelings, absorb whatever information is useful for you, and continue to participate in your community (whatever its shape and size). We can take action, we can respond from our spiritual depth in a constructive way, when we take the time to draw from the still point within. Peace. (Susan Nettleton).
David G. Allen (contemporary writer): "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in your mind."
Rev. Croft M. Pentz (1931-2008): "The secret of patience is to do something else in the meantime."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher, 1712-1778): "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
Bruce Lee (martial arts/philosopher 1940-1973) "Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength. "
Roy T. Bennett (contemporary inspirational writer): Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.
And two links:
W.S. Merwin: https://thedailygardener.org/come-back/
Walt Whitman: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../a-noiseless-patient...
October 14, 2020
When the weather is mild and the sky is clear as it was yesterday evening, the Pandemic seems to recede in a spurt of expansion and freedom. But this is not the time for us to drop our guard completely, particularly with the prediction of new surges of contagion as the season deepens. On a short walk yesterday at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, I was aware of conflicting feelings as my mind wandered to the places I would go and the people I would visit if this was not now the 7th month of Pandemic restrictions. These were not particularly useful wandering thoughts, except perhaps for taking measure of the changes and the toll of these times. This morning though, a haiku by the Zen poet Basho (1644-1694) popped into my mind:
"Though I am in Kyoto,
when the cuckoo sings,
I long for Kyoto."
Basho brings me back to an awareness that the beauty of nature is right outside my door. The mountain rising above the back wall. The towering cedar at the front door. Phenomenal bird songs echoing through the neighborhood. Sounds of children. Sounds of life. My phone is full of texts from connections nearby, across the country, across the globe, sharing our insights, humor, and care. Where else is there to be more wondrous than here? (Susan Nettleton)
October 16, 2020
These last weeks of October are most likely to bring more tensions and turmoil as the U.S. election revs up and the Pandemic begins to surge. These are events that pull us to action as part of the larger community and our collective dependency. We are called to individually make our choices and follow our chosen course at whatever level we personally participate in the voting process. At the same time, we cannot forget the Pandemic. We already know what we need to do in the field of public health, so as I have said, this is a time to review habits and routines and not let down our guard. (It's also the time for flu shots.) It is a time of doing. But the collective intensity of these next few weeks can be soothed by times of stillness and silence and peace. I personally believe that any time you can carve out for meditation and prayer--whatever practice brings you peace--benefits the whole of life, even if it's incremental. Clearly, it is of personal benefit to your psyche and your spirit, but it is also a form of participation in healing and care that benefits a larger field. While the rhythm and routine of a daily time of spiritual practice allows us to clear the pressures of the outside world, there is also power in the immediate moment. Here is a short poem from 18th century Jesuit monk Jean Pierre de Caussade. When during these weeks ahead, if you are unable to find the time, space or freedom for daily practice, why not take the plunge into what Caussade termed "the sacrament of the present moment".
Follow the link:
October 17, 2020
How are you framing today, as we live through and experience October 2020? Inspiratonal writer and speaker Johnathan Lockwood Huie offers an interesting question below, and then offers his own celebratory vision. Worth pondering possibilities this Saturday as our Pandemic storms unfold.
(From the website that bears his name.)
"Is today a day to gather strength from the storm,
a day to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire
and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life. " by Johnathan Lockwood Huie
"Today is your day to dance lightly with life,
sing wild songs of adventure,
invite rainbows and butterflies out to play
soar your spirit and unfurl your joy." by Jonathan Lockwood Huie
October 18, 2020
I am affirming this Sunday as a day of peace for you--at least a time during today where you can touch that core of peace within you, even if it's brief, even if your day carries burdens.
This poem by Rainer Maria Rilke offers yet another doorway to peace. It carries the reminder, that the the source of reassurance, Divine Presence, is always within reach. Our longing for It is our means of discovery. And our vision of beauty gives It strength.
There are various translations of this from the original German, but this, to me, is the most accessible. Follow the link to Rilke's poem, "I am, You Anxious One"
October 22, 2020
As we move further into the Fall season, medical reports continue to emphasize the surges of Covid-19 along with the prediction of the Pandemic worsening as winter approaches. At the same time, there are increasing reports of "Pandemic fatigue"--people have grown tired of the news and tired of the warnings, weary of the caution and awareness that staying healthy and keeping others healthy requires. One way to understand Pandemic fatigue is looking at it as sensory fatigue.
The solution to sensory fatigue is resting the senses (through sleep and meditation, for example) but also through switching things up; giving our tired senses new material to stimulate them in ways that shift our brain's processing. If we are tired of the sound of news voices, urgent demands and combative argument, try listening to new music, or the sounds of nature. If out of convenience, we are eating the same meals over and over again because of the difficulty of grocery shopping and the complications of eating out, decide to push a bit to have new tastes and set aside the too familiar. We can explore new textures and focus on unfamiliar scents. We can allow our eyes new sights, even if that only means a car ride in a new direction, bringing new color into our homes, moving the furniture around. These may be small steps, but they are an aspect to keeping sensory awareness fresh through new sensory input. We can also consider expanding the social network that we have nurtured and been nourished by; social contact through one media or another involves multiple senses. Factor in the sensory level as you consider winter projects and plan in particular for ways to experience nature in the winter months.
Without some sense that our lives are growing, "Pandemic fatigue", can push us into impulsive states, or into pessimistic, resentful states. It's understandable, we've been at this for 8 months and the winter maybe long; the weather, unpredictable. It seems a good time to explore stretching our sensory awareness as well as our time of silent stillness. (Susan Nettleton)
October 24, 2020
Here is your invitation to our Zoom Sunday Service tomorrow. If you don't know Zoom, you can get information from hillsidesource.com/zoom and a link for basic instructions. I hope you can attend! Susan Nettleton
Hillside Church is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting Sunday Service on
October 25, 2020
Topic: "In A Moment" by Dr. Susan Nettleton
Time: Oct 25, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 875 8508 0333
Passcode: Hillside
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October 27, 2020
Today I am posting a poem by William Stafford as an extension of my talk last Sunday, "In a Moment". While we have much personal and collective "business" and "voices" to attend to this week, with the added pressure of the election, the pandemic surges, and plans to make for the holidays and winter, I am redirecting your attention to the present moment, whatever it maybe for you. The repetitive practice of returning to the present moment is one form of meditation. It is also a practice that helps manage anxiety, grounds us in reality right now, and as Stafford offers, it's even a gift we give to world when we approach the moment with respect. When we approach with devotion, the moment becomes, in the words of 18th century Jesuit, Jean Pierre de Caussade, a "sacrament"--be ready. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link below for the poem:
October 31, 2020
In my talk last Sunday, I spoke of the cost of the complaining mind which collectively, and for many of us personally, is reaching a crescendo during this election and this new seasonal surge of Covid-19. This morning as I reflected on that, the words of St. Paul came to mind, "I have learned whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." His words point to a state that is at peace with fluctuating needs and wants and conditions. It is a state which is learned, perhaps through Grace, perhaps through practice, and most definitely through experiencing both times of dark human hardship as well as the light of Divine Love and rapture. He was imprisoned at the time he was writing this letter to the Philippine Church (4:11).
Is there a state beyond both complaint and satisfaction? More importantly, can we discover an acceptance the enfolds human fear and despair in times of struggle and uncertainty as we "face the facts" and yet, with that acceptance know the peace of purpose and a calm center of fulfillment, a knowing of the beauty, wonder, intelligence of Life? I think Paul achieved that. It is not a denial of the seriousness of our situation, nor of our problematic feelings, fears and longings. It is a "contentment" that integrates our humanity with our highest vision, faith and acknowledgment that the Good is also present, right here, right now. Susan Nettleton
In the words (from Naked Songs) of Lalla--or Lal Ded--14th century Kashmiri poetess:
That one is blessed and at peace
who doesn't hope, to whom desire makes no more loans. nothing coming, nothing owed.
November 1, 2020
Today is All Saints Day recognized by various denominations in Christianity. While a Saint in Catholicism is canonized through a very specific process, defined through specific criteria, Saints are recognized in all religions among those who seek the spiritual life. They serve as points of connection between our human frailties and shortcomings and our own capacity to discover the Transcendent, the Source within ourselves. They can be teachers or intermediaries, healers and ecstatic catalysts for our own awakening as unique spiritual beings. They are the promise of the holiness of life. In this contemporary rendition of a poem of St. Theresa of Avila, translator Daniel Ladinsky brings to life Theresa's humanity and her knowledge that we are transformed by loving what we love, until we can discover the one Love sustaining all of life. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link below: https://thisunlitlight.com/.../24/i-loved-what-i-could-love/
November 3, 2020
As America enters our official election day, the air is electric; it is the energy of large scale mobilization of people, of opinions, of hope, of fear, of meaning in our ability to participate in determining leadership. Our decisions, how we move through today and the days of waiting that are likely to follow are being watched by the world. All of this happening as the world struggles with a deadly Pandemic.
I want to encourage you to hold to your spiritual ground as you participate at whatever level is appropriate for you. Your community, our country and your world needs your peace and your blessing. It is not an easy task to stand on spiritual ground while the wave of intense emotions, along with misinformed reports and stories fly through social media. I am including today the text of the momentary spiritual practice that I spoke on last Sunday as one way to remind yourself and affirm for all this day, a spiritual underpinning of life.
Part of my sojourn in California has been learning the simple steps to managing potentially critical situations. Because of the fires, we have been reminded to "Stop, drop and roll", if
you suddenly catch a flame. Because of the earthquakes, we learn, "Drop, Cover, and Hold On." So out of those simple-- but not at all simple-- formulas, I am giving you a formula for something more positive, shifting your awareness in moments when you catch yourself entangled in thoughts and feeling states that disturb you. "Stop, Drop-it, and Know." Drop the fear, drop the resentment, drop the complaint, drop the confusion or despair. Know what? Know what you know spiritually. These are moments. It's raining moments. Not treatises. Not logical argument. Know at the level that you know in your best moments. Know life is intelligent and amazingly resilient. Know Peace is in the room. Know Healing is active. Know strength that rests in the heart of your own spirituality. Know Love. This is not something forced, this is what arises in you. Know what you know. Give it the space, the moment. Those moments will collect themselves in you. You and your world will be better for it. (Susan Nettleton)
November 4, 2020
While we wait for the clarity of America's election, the world waits with us. One thing is clear, at least in regard to politics, we remain divided. It is important to realize, with an open mind, that human politics is not the center of all life, even though it may be at the center of thought right now. This is a day (and in the week ahead) to continue in spiritual practice and embrace a larger field, a perspective which finds meeting points, rather than division. Below are links to articles by Dr. Larry Morris on Peace that point you to that larger realm. (Susan Nettleton)
https://hillsidesource.com/.../3/29/peace-with-our-world
https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/3/29/centered-in-peace
For any memorial comments on Larry on this 5th anniversary of his death, go to:
November 8, 2020
Today's post is from Jack Correu's most recent article from The Hillside Source web site and his blog "Musings from the Little Shack of Insight." This serves as a reminder, as the days shorten and nights lengthen, as the country takes a hopeful new turn--expecting some time of conflict--until through time, we learn to meet in the spirit of reconciliation, as the Pandemic continues to spiral and we renew our commitment to public health and safety, we have the choice to participate in a collective spiritual healing. We can choose to "feed the light.''
Follow the link to Jack's post: https://hillsidesource.com/.../little-shack-feeds-the-lig
November 12, 2020
Like many of you, I have been processing the last few days with the election conflicts and the fearsome escalation of the Pandemic across the globe and acutely in America. Co-mingled in the news is the promise of a new vaccine, although it is still months away and far from an immediate "fix" for the vast global population. All our wherewithal in health practice remains essential. Still this is good news; a concrete reminder that times do change. A friend of mine recently wrote to me about feeling unsettled with the sense of a brewing storm in the air. After months of uncertainty and the overall sense of a country (and world) that has been traumatized by disruption of normal socializing, economic instability, political conflict throughout a deadly Pandemic, we of course naturally feel on guard, waiting for disaster. But that anticipation and dread of the future is not helpful in building the stability that we can stand on as we move forward. This is a time to collect our emotions and our thoughts and infuse them with our spiritual ground. Peace, assurance--even gratitude for the positives aspects of life right now in front of us that lift us and sustain us--all are contagious attitudes, just as fear and anxiety are contagious. With that in mind, today I offer a blessing in times of inner chaos by contemporary spiritual writer and artist, Jan Richardson. It's a calming meditation. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../blessing-in-the-chaos-by.../
November 14, 2020
Today I am offering the thought that sometimes we go forward by going back. It is not a message that most people want to hear, especially those who are filled with the fire of life and whose hearts are bursting for the freedom to explore, discover and create the new. It's human nature to long for something "different" than what is in front of us. Right now though,
our collective well-being demands it. Covid-19 is not just "surging", it is on the cusp of volcanic eruption, nation-wide. Time to stop and take stock.
Most of the public health reading I have done this tumultuous week offers two encouraging points to counter the frenzy of frightening data: A vaccine holds hope for curtailing the virus next year and there is a window of time, right now, brief--depending on location, but nonetheless real--where we can put the brakes on the runaway train of contagion. This means we stop. We return to what we know slows the virus down. We go back. As we stop, we can honestly consider and apply what we have learned so far to protect people and to protect their livelihood. Everyone is tired of it, but in the entire history of humanity, a year of hardship is far from rare.
We were discussing this over the last few days here in California, and someone commented on the difference between the early spring lockdown and now. People earlier had sense of mission, of making a contribution to the good of the whole, of doing their part in a unified front; public health measures needed us, the individual and the group, to protect everyone and keep the hospitals and emergency medical teams from being overloaded. And the impact was real. But the divisions, conflicts and undermining elements, the economic toll, and time itself, wore that away. Today, I am encouraging you to take the path of return.
What is true in terms of our social/health behavior is also true on a spiritual level. Start with an exhale of resistance and resentment, of disappointment and blame, of discouragement and doubt. Inhale forgiveness, fresh air, fresh water for hungry, thirsty hearts-- yours, your neighbors, the world. Breathe prayer. Breathe peace. Breathe healing. Begin again.
November 15, 2020
With all the warnings about the Pandemic and the winter months, the point is not fear; the point is renewing the spirit of a shared burden of finding creative ways around traditional gatherings, keeping careful of distances and exploring open air spaces with new possibilities and protective masks. We really don't know what the winter ahead will be; nature still holds her surprises. But it makes sense to cultivate hardiness, not hardness. And stay open, stay open to life's promptings and the wisdom within. With that in mind, this morning I offer another poem from Denise Levertov. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link below to the poem:
November 18, 2020
Covid-19 cases across the country, as I last wrote, we are asked to return to more vigilance and more restrictions to protect ourselves, others and specifically, urgently, our medical care system--both hospitals and staff. From a public health perspective, we now know what to do. From a spiritual perspective, we can add a renewed sense of prayer. There has been a great deal of concern and advisories surrounding the upcoming holiday and the traditional Thanksgiving gatherings. It seems a fitting time for daily prayer, focused on the various layers and circles of activity that the Pandemic has impacted, that has the potential to open our inner doors to a genuine and profound gratitude this year. We begin with prayer for ourselves as individuals and expand outwardly each day.
My own prayer life tends toward the non-specific and wordless turning to the Nameless Source of my life and all life, to ask and accept an inner outpouring of what truly can nourish my life and circumstances. But there are times when words are needed to guide our feeling states, and the Nameless Source needs to be named. What you name That is not as important as your sense of connection; the name arises from within, perhaps our history and religious learning, perhaps from some spontaneous well-spring within us. Today, I name That as simply God. So each of us as individuals can turn to God and ask, affirm and accept, this outpouring of guidance, support, health, strength, companionship and peace as our way through this time of Covid-19. We let that outpouring within us be sustaining, knowing it is there, even when we do not feel it, like an underground spring that continues to soften and offer oozing wet soil to thirsty roots. We can accept a turning point, where today we are clear, that our lives underneath thrive and strengthen toward new freedom and activity as this time of Pandemic begins to pass. We accept the expansion of that clarity about our course, our health, and direction manifesting in the right time and right way. Today we are Shielded, Protected. Today we know Wisdom and Well-being. To day we are Nourished and Supported. Today we know Peace. And we are grateful. And so it is. Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 19, 2020
Last night I received a text from a relative in Texas that shared recent health problems and openly expressed disappointment and longing. She and her husband had been planning a Thanksgiving trip to Washington state where her son and his wife live with their young children. There was also a return trip over Christmas with other family members that had been shaping up. But when everyone read yesterday morning's Covid-19 warnings, they all realized that none of this could happen. She was left with her disappointment and an acute feeling of missing everyone in her family. This was followed by a clear recognition of how important family is to her personally, "I am tethered to my family". With this realization, she decided to plan a "Zoom family reunion" project and I am sure is already researching creative activities for their online Christmas. This story is being lived by countless families and friends throughout America this week as we grapple with the new intensity of the Pandemic and the grave threat that it has brought to holiday traditions.
My intent is to encourage you in prayer this week, opening the spiritual possibilities for healing in the different strata of people and roles impacted by the Pandemic. This includes our capacity for compassion and our awareness of shared struggles. Today, I encourage you to pray for those in your circle of family and friends. This is far more than well-wishing, more than sending "positive" thoughts their way. It is a letting go of your struggles to make things better and a "turning over" of each one, to the Wisdom and Intelligence of That which is in them, of That which has always sustained their lives, no matter how we may have fretted or judged events. So we can ask and accept the Highest and Best for them during this Pandemic, from a God of understanding and gentleness, of healing and protection, a God that brings nourishment to the deepest longings and needs within each. We know that they are sustained and guided. We know what is needed materially as well as physically, emotionally and spiritually, flows from the well-spring of life's abundant resources in traditional ways and in ways we could never predict. And like each of us, their lives expand in a new resilience and strength through this wave of Pandemic and its passing. With deep gratitude, it is done. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 20, 2020
Although there are always exceptions, human beings have the need for belonging, for mutual support, for group security as well as individual safety, and for collective celebration. Shared value systems, shared place, make these needs easier to fulfill. Yet, the larger the group, the more room there can be for diversity, including values and personal choice, as long as members of the community retain the understanding that individual well-being depends on the basic agreement of protection and stability of the group.
Human history, though, is replete with the story of division. Spiritual faith and religious beliefs and practices can be the glue of community, but they are frequently the source of division. Even within shared basic beliefs, religious and spiritual groups split and fragment into opposing factions. Human beings unite and divide. The sobering reality is that our individual well-being does indeed depend on a diverse and often conflicting world. It is in recognition of that, that I approach prayer today as prayer for our community.
Prayer on a community level is not as personal as for ourselves and our family and friends, but realistically, by definition, our community includes us as well as those closest to us. So in prayer we recognize the community, our community, as an aggregate of individuals, of friendships, of families, of those we know and don't know, of those who are like-minded and those that do not see things as we see. Yet we are all participants at the level that we define as our community. We admit that we do not know and cannot know what is best for each. We may have our stories, but we let them go right now, in an acceptance of a unity that transcends our separation. We ask and we accept that which is highest and best for our community as we move through the Pandemic. We accept Divine Intelligence, Truth, Wisdom and Healing as the movement of Life at work throughout, within and without, this community. We ask and we accept harmonious interactions and exchanges that bring health and well -being to all. In the spirit of forgiveness, of mutual dependency, a new kind of vibrancy and friendliness now eases the wounds of the past and the stresses of the present. And in a communal spirit, we are open to and abundantly receive creative possibilities of renewed life. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 21, 2020
Today, I am turning our prayer process to the workers and business owners who have struggled and faced higher risks during the Pandemic. (Tomorrow we turn to the Medical and First Responders). At this point in the Pandemic, most people realize the crux of conflict between lowering contagion of Covid-19 through isolation, quarantine, lock-downs and social distancing (avoiding public places as much as possible), and the economic imperative to keep supply lines for everyone open, as well as to earn income that provides food, clothing, shelter, healthcare for families and revenue for public programs. Various models for maintaining some balance in this process have been tried, some more creative, some more successful than others. All have required the entire population to think in different ways and stretch beyond our convenience and self-protection.
With those experiences in mind, I encourage you today to turn your prayers toward businesses, workers, and public programs and facilities, all of which involve people. We turn once again, to the Source of life--as we understand the Spiritual-- to acknowledge the complexity of these issues. Yet at this spiritual level, we can affirm the universal nature of exchange of goods and services as a core process of life. We are grateful for this exchange, for those who have supplied us, given of their efforts, their talents, their time and energy, their courage as agents of the flow and sustenance of life--whatever the individual human motivation may be. We are willing to acknowledge that there may have been times when we have ourselves have taken this exchange for granted, especially during the times of great stress, with our own preoccupations and pressures during the Pandemic. In this acknowledgement, we reach a deeper level of gratitude and compassion; we can let go of any grudges we may be holding about the economic realities of the Pandemic. We ask and accept renewed courage and strength in those who are working to maintain businesses, to maintain institutions--from the car repairman, to city maintenance, to teachers of every kind, the grocery workers, restaurant workers, factory workers, delivery and warehouse workers, small businesses to large, public and private. We offer a new respect for their labor. We welcome a new peace that enfolds our workers and businesses within God's protecting, healing Grace. Out of the exchange of life on this level, we affirm a new and stable, inclusive prosperity. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 22, 2020
Today I turn to prayer for those who are essential to the healing process of individuals, as well as our public health leaders and workers and the global scientific world now at work on a Covid-19 vaccine. I decided to recognize these human healers on Sunday to make a point. All healing is spiritual healing. There is no need to divide the world of prayer and spiritual vision from the world of medicine and science. While medical science requires a certain kind of objectivity that allows for precision and measurement and holds us to the rigorous methods of science, the only barrier to realizing this discipline as a spiritual practice is in our consciousness, our ideas of division and categorization. Understanding this seems especially important during the Pandemic. We need sound medical treatment and we need faith in a larger spiritual reality.
Because Covid-19 is so contagious and the consequences potentially so serious, hospitalized and quarantined patients are not allowed one essential aspect of healing--the direct support of family and friends. The more we view this division between medical healing and spiritual healing the greater the distance seems between prayer process--now from a distance--and medical treatment without visitors, without the touch of someone close. This is not only true for the patient, but for the staff as well, many of whom leave their own faith at home, because it is extremely difficult to hold a spiritual awareness and at the same time, hold to the demands of precision and objectivity when under the extreme stress of overflowing hospitals, shortages of equipment and supplies, protocols for contamination and contagion, and the heartbreak of human suffering. I am not just writing about doctors and nurses and clinical staff, but also those who measure and dispense medications, maintain equipment, clean rooms, manage the scheduling, deal with the paper work...
So today we hold a vision of hospitals and their workers and of all those in clinic situations and the first responders, EMT's, fire fighters, police who give their life energy to health emergencies. Today, we hold them in prayer, with great care and respect. We ask and we accept their renewed strength. We offer our faith when theirs is not accessible to them. We give them our affirmation of life's resilience that includes each of these workers and their families-- their personal lives, as well as their work, remembering that to be humane, we must human. We need rest, we need "down town." The way now opens. We affirm community compassion and understanding of the weight of their responsibility. We offer it now, from our hearts. We ask and accept that the Highest Wisdom, Intelligence and Truth now guides their knowledge and their decisions. Every day and every night. And we enfold them in gratitude and assurance that they are indeed essential, and accordingly, God pours forth all that brings healing through their hands. And so it is. Amen. (Susan Nettleton).
November 23, 2020
This daily focus on prayer is a way to expand our awareness of the complex impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It is a practice intended to stretch our consciousness of prayer at a crucial point as the steady, swift rise of new cases meets the Thanksgiving holiday in America for a weary population. It is an opportunity to try different aspects of prayer as part of your spiritual practice and reflect on the experience of adding your affirmation of the spiritual life to all those who are praying for healing during the Pandemic. You are never alone in prayer. Someone, somewhere is always at prayer with you, regardless of belief or concern. Prayers on a larger, more universal scale, are not the same as personalized prayer, until we find the "we" behind the nameless and the many. The words I have been offering are a kind of template; let your heart lead your words.
Today we turn toward those who are sick with Covid-19, those who still struggle with residual effects and unresolved symptoms from the illness, those who struggle with the emotional toll of treatment, and the families who grieve for those who have died. We can begin with the recognition that healing and repair are essential, natural responses of the body itself. The human body is equipped for healing. It has evolved to favor healing and repair. Death is a part of life, but here, today, we pray in support of life, in wondrous recognition of the body's healing capacity. We ask and we accept, all that is needed to allow the body to regulate, to adjust, to resist infection, and rebuild where needed. We claim new peace and new courage for those who are afraid. Peace and courage allow for rest, needed to repair. We loosen within ourselves, any doubt, sadness, blame or fear in the face of those who are now in the body's process of healing; We know love. Love lifts. Love affirms and supports the intelligent care of life. Love transcends the barriers of expectation, doubt, and separation; love is itself healing. God is Love. God is Health. We know that these for whom we pray are cared for, soothed, nourished, sustained, and made whole. We are grateful to be here, now, as witnesses in
November 24, 2020
This is day 7 of our process of looking at the Pandemic through the lens of prayer, beginning as individuals and moving through the layers of impact participation and impact. Today we turn our attention to the global aspect of the pandemic. While from the standpoint of our everyday tumultuous planet, this may feel futile, we can find that still point where we know life as a flow of consciousness; from a transcendent view, we are the world. So in stillness we pray for the whole, as we turn to our Source. In a world of 7.8 billion people, we can more easily grasp the world's struggle in this Pandemic, by first turning our prayer to world and national leaders, in all the fields activity that are impacted by the Pandemic and the interaction and exchange with one another across the globe. We don't have access to all the exchanges that have taken place, but we can choose to see through prayer the same guiding Light of Intelligence and Wisdom and Care that we have affirmed throughout our prayers.
We ask and accept new cooperation arising from almost a year now of experience with this Covid-19 Pandemic. We know that in the Oneness of Life there is infinite variation, and that is life's beauty and strength. Throughout this year, there have been many international exchanges, beyond the global commerce-- exchange of data, of equipment, of creative solutions and creative expression, of scientific and medical experience and understanding, of teams involved in discovering issues of antibodies, medications, immunization and so much more, and most certainly an exchange of prayers. We are grateful for the points of meeting and exchange. They offer new meaning to a new world and we let that bear fruit that moves life forward, moves healing forward. We ask and accept a deeper trust and truth of serving and supporting one another, across our planet. We ask and accept forgiveness of where we have all missed the mark. We affirm our capacity to learn and to adapt and to heal together. Thank you God for a new global resolve to heal. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 25, 2020
As a final post on this Pandemic process of prayer, now the day before Thanksgiving, we can go one step further in our awareness of the Oneness of Life on our planet. Earth life is more than human beings. We are interdependent not just on each other, but the whole of nature as well. While the exact source of the original Covid-19 virus is still not known, research points to crossover DNA/RNA from the animal world, with it first spreading to yet another species, and then to humans. Whether that was a natural event, whether that somehow involved a human laboratory process, whether the ecological changes that have occurred through human population growth and encroachment on natural habitats or climate change has anything to do with it--these questions have not been answered, and may not be answerable. But the fact that they are raised is a powerful reminder that we share the planet with animal, insect, microbial and plant life, that is impacted by one another.
Our future has always been, and will continue to be, dependent on the ways in which we relate to other species and the forces of nature in one way or another. So as a final prayer in this process, we can affirm the totality of life as we understand it and recognize that it's vastness is far beyond the scale and scope of human knowledge. We ask and accept for new ideas and new understanding, new guidance and approaches to living in this complex, amazing abundance of Life's expression. We let our hearts acknowledge the beauty and wonder of Life and offer both respect and care for the magnificent living forms of this Earth. We add our trust of Life's ability to heal all that needs healing, as it changes, adapts, and continues to thrive, and as we, as human being, listen, learn, and act as agents of healing. Thank you God, for a new sense of meaning and depth and responsiveness to this unfolding Earth that arises from the Pandemic of 2020. And so it is. Amen. (Susan Nettleton)
November 26, 2020
However circumstances have led your holiday, it still remains a day set aside for giving Thanks, no matter what your spiritual viewpoint or religious background, no matter where or how you find yourself at this moment. Today, we let gratitude fill our prayers with faith and new vision.
Follow the link to a poem https://gratefulness.org/resource/thanksgiving-song/
November 29, 2020
It's now Sunday evening and I once again came across this short poem by the great medieval Saint, Hildegard of Bingen. We have read it many times over the years at church services.It is a quiet and simple reminder of the ever-present form of the Spiritual essence of Life, known as the Holy Spirit.
Follow the link: https://untamedabyss.tumblr.com/.../st-hildegard-von-bingen
December 2, 2020
Susan Nettleton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: To Care or Not to Care by Dr. Susan Nettleton
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December 4, 2020
Today in Los Angeles County, California, we are under still further restrictions and Stay-at-Home orders as the hospitals fill with new Covid-19 patients. No one should be surprised; we have been warned since last spring and throughout the summer and fall that this would be a difficult, frightening winter if we ignored the Pandemic and cautionary practices. Thanksgiving gatherings initiated a new surge upon the surge and we now face the upcoming holidays with new restrictions across the country, as we look with hope toward the vaccine. It was a mild sunny day here and I was able to take a short walk up the tree lined. The street was not still, but definitely quieter as things begin to slow down and people digest the news. It is a lovely street and I felt a new calm being back outside among those trees and landscape. I reflected on the week of prayer posts I wrote before Thanksgiving; a prelude to the predicted winter harshness with my hope that those prayers will seed your spiritual life with new prayers as we move through the winter months, wherever you may be.
As I walked, my eye caught some black rolling fruit along the sidewalk and street curb that I had never seen there before. And then I saw a flash of bright green where the fruit had smashed on concrete. I looked up and saw a huge tree, laden with ripe avocados! When had they arrived? I would have never identified the tree without it's fruit. The avocados were everywhere. And it hit me with renewed insight--how nature provides, not just provides, but provides in abundance with quiet generosity. While we struggled with our restrictions and traditions and resistances and fear and frustration, this magnificent tree was growing fruit, lining the sidewalk with it, spilling it into the streets, sending it rolling down the hill with it's own joy of growing and giving. Here is food. There are oranges and lemons and persimmons spilling in the backyards here. If you are facing barren trees, snow and ice, remember in the cycle of seasons, nature is growing underground and will spill out in Spring regardless of Covid-19. This is the root of Thanksgiving and the root of holidays and Holy Days, the recognition that Life does provide, generously. We have more than enough of what is needed to move through this time into a new year and renewed life. (Susan Nettleton)
“And still, after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."
Look what happen with a love like that, it lights the Whole Sky.”
(14th century Persian poet) Hafez
December 6, 2020
This Sunday morning, I encourage you to sink into the idea that you have all that you need. Let today be a day of rest, regardless of what plans you may have or chores you may tackle. Do them with rest, the kind of ease that comes in knowing you have enough for a this moment. Even if you have to take that one moment at a time. A pause in our concerns. An openness in our sense of time. A space in our longing. We can let the mind be satisfied for now.As poet Holly Hughes writes, "the mind always wants more...". Let today be enough. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../mind-wanting-more
December 11, 2020
This morning, I held in my mind various threads of thought that I considered pursuing in today's post. Then I read the morning news. I felt the immense agitation across the country and knew it not as mine, but as a collective consciousness, conflicted, struggling to find our way to health, stability, and peace. This passage from the teachings of Jesus came next to my mind as a universal spiritual teaching. There are many traditional and metaphysical interpretations of these beatitudes, but I decided to post them as they are translated from the Bible, for your own contemplation. Today, here, I find a message of peace and healing. (Susan Nettleton)
Matthew 5:3-10
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
December 12, 2020
Here is your invitation to our next Zoom Service tomorrow, December 13, 2020. I hope you can attend!
Susan Nettleton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: To Care or Not to Care by Dr. Susan Nettleton
Time: Dec 13, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85653495495...
Meeting ID: 856 5349 5495
Passcode: 388360
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,85653495495#,,,,,,0#,,388360# US (San Jose)
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December 13, 2020
For this Sunday evening I am posting a poem by Rilke that I read at the Zoom service this morning. Here Rilke offers an endearing view of God, a God who we feel may require our care. A God who is close by. In one way, it is a call to explore God as in a more intimate, reciprocal relationship. In other way, it is a hint that in the Oneness, the spiritual expresses itself everywhere, including whoever maybe next door. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://www.elissaelliott.com/rilke-poem-for-today/
December 16, 2020
As new vaccines are being distributed and the first Americans begin receiving them, the hospitals in many states are at peak capacity with severely ill Covid-19 patients. Emotionally, we are confronted with a roller coaster of reactions: hope, relief, further fear and deeper grief. On a public health level, we must continue our prevention practices, staying at home as much as is possible and consistent with the community's mandates, while at the same time, we begin preparing for the vaccine process, by staying informed and open to our community's plan. Spiritually, the ground remains the same. That is the focal point I encourage you to stay with as winter unfolds.
We are both more tired and more experienced as the end of the year approaches. This is the time to lean on your experience, as well as cultivating times of necessary rest. The holidays, seen through the eyes of Holy Days, can be a source of strength and inner nourishment, when we view them that way. There is still an often buried ancient spiritual energy that runs through these weeks that can give us new momentum toward a new year. We can stop and turn to it. These Holy Days can also be holidays that provide needed distractions from the news and distractions from ourselves, when we turn our attention to how we choose to celebrate, who and how we connect, remembering past holidays and creating new memories that will become part of our history. Still, the spiritual ground remains the same.
Our understanding shifts. Our faith both wavers and strengthens. Our hearts question or drink deeply in times of comfort and inspiration. Still, the spiritual ground remains the same. These next weeks and in to Spring, we will walk this strange balance point between the raging Pandemic and the gift of vaccine. Recover the spiritual ground. Let it lead you. (Susan Nettleton)
December 18, 2020
Today is the last day of Hanukkah this year. As the Jewish Festival of Lights comes to it's 8th and final day to light the candle, we can let this day be a reminder that winter celebrations hold Light, as well as tradition and history. Whatever changes you may need to make this month in your traditions, let light be an aspect. In the short piece below, Larry Morris reminds us that the holidays hold something else as well: the potential for surprise. On one hand it seems that this year has brought too many shocks to consider the joy of surprise, but surprise is the positive pole that adds sparkle, wonder and a magical quality to life that takes us beyond the box of thought and expectation, reminding us the Light (and delight) of life is not to be contained. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/holiday-surprise?rq=holiday%20surprise
December 20, 2020
This Sunday I am posting a poem on light, by T.S. Eliot. Here we are turning to invisible light, or perhaps barely perceptible light that reminds us: There is always light somewhere and the Light we know as spiritual Presence is always at hand within us. Remember in the wholeness of Life, while our sun is "setting" so quickly in winter, it is bringing a new day elsewhere to our planet, even in the darkest night.
My favorite line in this poem refers to "those who meditate at midnight...", another reminder that we are never alone in meditation either. In that sense, all meditation is communal meditation. It is especially comforting to reflect on that during this Holy week on lockdown. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link: https://www.poetrynook.com/.../o-light-invisible-we...
December 21, 2020
Today is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. It is also the much announced and anticipated great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, where the two planets appear closer together than they have since the middle ages. Although they are planets, they appear as two stars in the night sky with a combined light some refer to as the Christmas star. This unusual event will also include an annual meteor shower, likely visible in late morning, depending where you are.
Rare planetary events are always fuel for interpretation and there are many floating around in this year of Pandemic, especially as we approach a new calendar year. For me Winter Solstice is always a most welcomed day because this is the point of maximum dark; from this point forward, until June, the light increases. The rhythm and pattern theme of the cosmos continues even as the human world drama plays out. There is always a larger reality and point of view available to us. And that includes, the value of night and dark in the pulse of the cosmos. (See the link below.)
Hopefully it will be a clear night and whether you can spot particulars go outside for a view of the night sky. It always holds the potential for clearing your head of narrow thinking and opening your heart to awe. (Susan Nettleton)
For more thoughts, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/winter-creativity?rq=holiday%20traditions
December 22, 2020
For many who are following the Covid-19 public health guidelines, this Christmas will mean virtual gatherings, rather than celebrating directly with family and friends. The disruption in traditions gives an opportunity for reflection on the idea of family and traditions, opening new ways to view both. Even though our gatherings may be online, or for some, postponed gatherings, holiday connections continue to hold opportunities to reconnect, perhaps resolve old conflicts and not repeat painful patterns. However your holiday is shaping up, I encourage to connect in an atmosphere of peace. It maybe brief. It maybe by phone, note, or computer, or even in silent prayer. Connect and know peace. We all will benefit. (Susan Nettleton)
For further thoughts follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/familypeace?rq=holidays
December 23, 2020
To add a lighter touch to these days before Christmas I am posting a link to Jack Correu's blog, Little Shack of Insight, from December 2018. Jack reminds us that Christmas is meant to be magical and wondrous and connects us to life and relationship. (Susan Nettleton)
Follow the link:
December 24, 2020
For a Christmas Eve post, I am offering you a link to a poem by Larry Morris, written for one of our Christmas Eve poetry services held many years ago. To me it echos these times when we have had to hold to faith through the darker moments of 2020, and yet it is this very solitude that allows the moment of recognition of spiritual truth--yielding, surrender, then Illumination and Rebirth. Our moment is specific and unique to us as individuals and yet, through it, we know our relationship to all things, all Life. Merry Christmas, Susan Nettleton
Follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/sunrise-birth
December 27, 2020
Before we rush from the Christmas holiday to New Year's Celebrations, before we begin any process of review of this year, let's take the time to enjoy the wonder of this day. This poem, an excerpt from "The Prelude"* by Wordsworth, is a reminder of the magnificence of nature all around us and including us, each day. Embedded in his perception is the idea of "a dedicated Spirit". That phrase holds deep meaning that is to be defined by your own heart. (Susan Nettleton)
Magnificent
The morning rose, in memorable pomp,
Glorious as e'er I had beheld--in front,
The sea lay laughing at a distance; near,
The solid mountains shone, bright as the clouds,
Grain-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light;
And in the meadows and the lower grounds
Was all the sweetness of a common dawn--
Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds,
And labourers going forth to till the fields.
Ah! need I say, dear Friend! that to the brim
My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,
A dedicated Spirit. On I walked
In thankful blessedness, which yet survives.
* further excerpts can be found online on several sites, including PoemHunter
December 31, 2020
Even as we look forward to a New Year, the Pandemic rages. The situation here, in L.A. County hospitals, has reached a incomprehensible crisis. Today there are exhausted emergency workers, medical staff, custodial and cleaning staff, public health staff and government officials, along with patients and families who continue to stay the course, to make decisions and use their judgement and experience to save lives and regain the ground of healthcare. I encourage you to offer them and others around the country your spiritual support as prayer, affirmation, and light.
Today is New Year's Eve. It's been a very long and exceptionally difficult year. But exceptional times push us to new understanding and discoveries and at the same time can clarify our values and bring into focus our priorities and goal. These are also times when we can feel deep gratitude for the good that is in are lives right now, even while in upheaval. I hope you have found that has happened to you. Depending on your experience, it may possibly take years to personally process this year of the Covid-19 Pandemic; we expect for all of us that our perspective, the impact and the meaning will shift over time as our lives and our world unfolds. But before any celebration of the new, we traditionally let go of the old. There are many reviews of the collective events of 2020 in the news and in various formats online and as part of the collective, they may help you reflect and release the ways in which you have been connected to this collective experience. Most of us over the next few days will review and reflect with those closest to us our shared experiences.
But your personal experience as an individual defines specifically you. I urge you to also take time today to turn within, in silence and stillness to gently review your year of the Pandemic. The time is ripe for release and forgiveness. You won't release and forgive everything today, but you will begin and you will feel the healing that lies underneath and the stirrings of new life. By midnight, wherever you are, it will no longer be 2020.
Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton).
For thoughts on How to Let Go, follow the link to an article by Larry Morris.