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 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: 

https://hillsidesource.com/givingway

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…/

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 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 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 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 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:

https://hillsidesource.com/search?q=fasting%20from%20worry

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 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 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 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 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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0dohZ3iIw

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.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw71zanwMnY#action=share

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 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 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 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 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

The Hillside Source is an online resource project of Hillside Community Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.