January 24, 2021

For this Sunday's post, I am offering further ideas on cultivating peace in this midst of all the stresses of the Pandemic and the urgency of overcoming divisions as we live this new year. This morning I remembered the work of the 20th century American spiritual teacher who came to be known as Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981). Even though her first public walk for peace began just a few miles from where I am right now, in Pasadena, California (1953), ironically, I first learned of her spiritual depth while I was staying in Bangalore, India in 2004. She continued to walk across America as a teacher and advocate for peace until her death. Here are some quotes to contemplate now in 2021. (Susan Nettleton)

"We can work on inner peace and world peace at the same time. On one hand, people have found inner peace by losing themselves in a cause larger than themselves, like the cause of world peace, because finding inner peace means coming from the self-centered life into the life centered in the good of the whole. On the other hand, one of the ways of working for world peace is to work for more inner peace, because world peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it."

"I am constantly thankful. The world is so beautiful, I am thankful. I have endless energy, I am thankful. I am plugged into the source of Universal Supply, I am thankful. I am plugged into the source of Universal Truth, I am thankful. I have this constant feeling of thankfulness, which is a prayer."

"I deal with spiritual truth which should never be sold and need never be bought. When you are ready it will be given."

January 21, 2021

Now that America has moved through a peaceful but heavily guarded inauguration of our 46th President Joe Biden, we can breathe a sigh of relief that there was no violence and begin to adjust ourselves to the year ahead. We are asked to begin "afresh" with a focus on choosing unity over division. Part of this new beginning includes committing to wearing masks for another 100 days as well as following through with the vaccination program, seeking any medical information we may need as individuals and learning how the program works in our communities. Realistically, no one is ready to quite let down our guard just yet after the capitol attack, so we will remain watchful as a nation.

I am encouraging you today and tomorrow to consider the process of beginning afresh, spiritually. The passing year has been extraordinarily difficult, not just for us personally, but collectively. Beginning "afresh" inevitably means letting go, in different ways for each of us. Although there is a collective tension and watchfulness we must retain right now, with the Pandemic as well as political threats--we don't have to hold on to all of the difficulty, pain, fear, confusion, and resentment of this last year.

Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity, wrote in his book Christian Healing, "God is in the universe as its constant 'breath' or inspiration; hence it is only necessary to find the point of contact in order to understand the One in whom we all 'live, and move, and have our being'... The point of contact is a willingness and a seeking on your part."

If we are seeking a fresh beginning on a spiritual level, one simple technique is to turn to our breath as a natural symbol of "out with the old, in with the new", trusting that we receive what we need and release what is no long needed. Along with the amazing intelligence of our physiology automatically regulating the breath, we can remember God as the breath of life. Breathing naturally, not controlling it, in this way becomes a form of affirmative prayer. We can inhale new life, new resolve, new inspiration, new peace and exhale our fatigue, our frustration, our fears, even our sadness and loss. Take a deep breath and allow a collective sigh of relief. Then allow yourself healing and renewal as you take in and let go. (Susan Nettleton)

January 18, 2021

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I am posting two simple yet powerful quotes from him. They are words worth our reflection as we enter this week. (Susan Nettleton)

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude."

January 17, 2021

Throughout this week of news feed after news feed on the assault on the U.S. Capitol and the upcoming inauguration, my mind has been replaying a spiritual--a hymn that bubbles up reminding me that this is the time for affirmation of peace, rather than fear and anger.

1 I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, in my soul. (repeat)

2 I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean, in my soul. (repeat)

3 I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, in my soul. (repeat)

In that spirit I offer a link below from the writings of Shr Chinmoy (1931-2007), a spiritual teacher from India who moved to America in 1964 and eventually established a global following. The link below offers 33 short poems on Peace, giving you a wide selection to contemplate and affirm as we move through this upcoming historic week. (Peace, Susan Nettleton)

https://www.srichinmoypoetry.com/selected-poems/poems-peace/

January 16, 2021

Hillside Sunday Zoom Service January 31, 2021

Susan Nettleton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: "Walking the Edge of New" by Dr. Susan Nettleton

Time: Jan 31, 2021 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

10:00 AM Pacific Time

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 845 8509 6701

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbyh1itG1D

(For helpful instructions on using Zoom from our Hillside Source website click here: hillsidesource.com/zoom

January 13, 2021

It is now a week since the assault on the Capitol and we have been inundated with further disturbing news. Tension in Washington D.C. grows as arrests are made , new information is revealed and time moves toward the inauguration. The violence and threats of more continue, as does the surging Pandemic and the death toll. Distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine has begun and with it both a promise and a warning; things will eventually improve, but it will take time. We can expect the vaccination process to shift, the way most collective messages have shifted, as our experience and understanding continues to expand.

If you have not already returned to regular spiritual practice, now is the time to begin again. It is the time to recommit to your Way. Don't let the fatigue of the accumulated stressors undermine your spiritual faith and values and your faith in your own capacity for resilience and healing. I can only repeat the significance of maintaining your inner life and light. When it seems too much, pull back, disengage from the news, take care of yourself. Nurture yourself on more than one level. Then begin again. This is the time to draw on the inner strength that we have been building over all these months, despite our resistance and resentments, despite our frustration and anger, despite our anxiety--even times of panic, we have come this far and in all likelihood, this winter marks the turning point. You are stronger in ways you could not have imagined a year ago. Surprisingly, so are most of the people you know. When we relate from the strength of faith and experience, together, we are even stronger. (Susan Nettleton)

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live.” Dalai Lama

January 10, 2021

For today's Sunday post, I am encouraging you to continue my message from Friday's evening post: rest and renew and don't jump ahead of this collective process of change and healing. Tomorrow the country, with the world watching, begins a new week in this new year. Today we gain perspective by letting go to life around us right now and taking the time to be grateful for moments of light and love. In his December blog post on The Hillside Source website, Jack Correu shows us one of the many ways to do that. (Susan Nettleton)

Click here: https://hillsidesource.com/.../sweet-memories-at-the...

January 8, 2021

This afternoon, I am taking my computer outside to write where I can look up at the San Gabriel mountain range that rises a block or two away from the backyard. I need the fresh air and I think you probably do as well, wherever you are staying. In the background I hear a plane overhead (someone is still flying somewhere). I hear some hammering on a neighborhood house (someone is renovating nearby). I hear the trash pickup trucks in the distance (the city still has services). Faint human voices and more distinct bird conversations chirp directly overhead (communication continues). Life goes on and beauty, really, is everywhere.

The first week of 2021 has been explosive. The U.S. hit its highest daily death toll since the onset of the Pandemic. The Capitol building was breached by riots. Congress and the Senate weathered attack and despite their shock, picked up their work and continued, while the world waited and watched, until the work was done. After almost a year of stressful events in the unfolding and surging of the Pandemic, everyone is exhausted--even if we are not on the front lines of action, we are all on the front lines of witnessing, of carrying our lives forward, of adapting, surviving and hopefully, supporting something both good and stable. So if you find yourself immobile right now or slow and sluggish, or anxious and unfocused, you have every reason to be that way. Stop, or at least slow down, and let yourself catch up.

This is not about acquiring more information. This post is about rest and recreation in order to shore up our resiliency. You have your spiritual practices, they will keep. Right now, rest, release, wander among the things you most enjoy. Your spiritual practice will pull you back and give the balance. You are included in the whole of life and the whole is within you. Take a fresh breath; then we all begin again. (Susan Nettleton)

January 3, 2021

This morning my grandson walked into my kitchen to show me a drawing he had just scribbled with great flair, wielded from a new pencil. The pencil was freshly sharpened in the electric pencil sharpener I gave him for Christmas. He loves electronics and he really wanted that sharpener! Now put to good use, he asked me what I thought the drawing looked like. I saw a bit of a bird-like head and a tail-like triangle pointing upward, the two shapes linked by an oval full of scribbles. I said, "Look, it's a swan on the water, and these lines are like feathers and splashing water. Draw an eye here and you will see it." He put in the eye and I added three circular lines for moving water. Then he saw it! He ran upstairs, full of pride, to show his dad, shouting, "I drew a swan!"

His joy inspired me to post this link to the poem "Swan" by Mary Oliver. The questions she asks you are perfect for this New Year's first Sunday--did you see it? (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poeticous.com/mary-oliver/the-swan-1?lns=o

(scroll all the way down to the text)

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.

https://hillsidesource.com/how-to-let-go

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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/

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