September 24, 2023

For info on our Oct. 1 Sunday Zoom Service with Dr. Susan Nettleton visit hillsidesource.com

Welcome to Autumn 2023! Seasonal shifts bring their own movement and energy and that shift often means welcomed change. But, change can be disruptive as well. As I reflected on this Sunday's post, I suddenly realized I had mixed up the dates for last Sunday's post. I wrote on forgiveness and amends, mistakenly naming last Sunday as Yom Kippur 2023--I was a week ahead! Tonight at sundown, 2023 Yom Kippur begins. With a dose of my own self-forgiveness, I now point you to an extended space of forgiveness and atonement/amends to carry us into fall.

The mistake made me aware of another aspect of inner equilibrium and optimism--our capacity to wait. Patience, as well as forgiveness, is easier when you hold positive expectations of an unfolding Good. In New Thought practice, we have the idea of Divine Timing. Divine Timing isn't the same as our demand for Now, or our practice of being here Now (although the practice of pulling our thoughts and emotions back to what is presently in front us at this moment, is a corollary, a companion to the practice of patience). Divine Timing is the outworking of Good. That outworking enfolds the many factors of events, people, relationships, emotions, ideas, expectations...to sum it up, factors of consciousness...that unfold over and through our sense of time.

We can experience timeless happenings and sudden, seemingly instantaneous, events that change our lives, yet most of life blossoms over time. The rhythm of 'a year' and changing of seasons mark time. When we risk nurturing a quiet trust in the Spiritual Good of Life, and a quiet trust in our own capacity to affirm the Highest and Best for ourselves and others, we relax into Divine Timing. The struggle and the rewards of positive patience are beautifully reflected in Jack Correu's latest Little Shack of Insight blog post at hillsidesource. com. I want to share it with you this morning. Consider the mystery of Divine Timing unfolding in your life, bringing you the gift your heart reaches.toward. (Susan Nettleton)

The Little Shack Hears Fall, by Jack Correu. "The little shack has been in hibernation all summer, the hottest I have ever been through. The temperature here has reached 109 degrees at the highest--103,104,105 consistently--for the past three months! Extreme drought has had most tree leaves brown or dead. The wildlife has suffered immensely. But NOW!, the first hint of fall with rain and cooler weather. Before summer hit, I had received a Cochlear implant. Throughout this extreme heat, I was adjusting to the new device. I can now hear the changes. I hear the rain, the birds, the wind; sounds I haven't heard in decades! Nature is whispering to us her Love. She is whispering: "Be with me now, smell my scent, drink my waters, and tell me you understand my cycles and Love me as your partner. Her truth is intoxicating. From the Little Shack: Embrace it All!"

'Let these words fly through time

to someone coming

you know who you are...

This Love has nibbled on your ear,

whispering secrets

That doesn't make sense

to anyone else'

- RUMI