February 18, 2024

This weekend has me reflecting on a phrase I read long ago: "the leisureliness of eternity". I discovered it buried in one of the many books I read by the prolific spiritual author, Evelyn Underhill (1875 – 1941). It has floated in my consciousness for decades. The passage spoke of the pinnacles of Christian Sainthood, those who historically moved through religious and worldly activities with Grace and Peace, unpressured by time or urgency. Their movement was centered in their understanding and personal experiences of God as the eternal Doer of all things, beyond human frameworks of time. Underhill also declared: "On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur." The call to the spiritual life is ultimately a call to the deep Peace of God as Source and Sustainer of all creation in the leisureliness of eternity. And, "He who is in a hurry, delays the things of God."(St.Vincent de Paul).

Contrast this aspect of spiritual peace with our 2024 culture of urgency. Our current awareness of the threats of climate change has fueled a growing world wide concern; humanity must acknowledge our environmental neglect and face substantial changes across the globe. We stretch to research and implement new policies and technology that will impact the current 195 countries on Earth. The warning message of our time frame varies, depending on scientific studies, region, politics and commercial interests. We have solutions coming to the forefront, but simultaneously, centuries of conflicting beliefs, varying cultures, and human drives for power and dominance as yet block our way.

This is one layer of a 21st Century collective urgency (conscious or unconscious), that was unknown in the medieval and renaissance ages of the high saints. Yet, they all were surrounded by beliefs about the world and it's future, whether it was the 2nd coming of Christ, or Armageddon, or the threats of Satan and Eternal Damnation, or the "Infidels" that spurred war. They too had their Plagues, as we had the Covid-19 Pandemic, bringing further collective urgency. Beyond those comparisons though, our current world has the rapid rise of the digital age with new tools for those who seek to leverage the power of constant urgency. On one hand, the urgency of Covid-19 sparked phenomenal international scientific cooperation, and delivered us vaccines and treatments that are still progressing. On the other hand, the Pandemic opened a space of new conflict and division, driven with an unrelenting call of Urgent. That call of Urgent has become the go-to pressure of commercial sales, the standard of weather news, a political battle cry, a fundraising imperative, your fleeting chance for health, and of course, the sly opening for riches, name, fame...Urgency loses it's meaning when everything is labeled urgent. It also recks havoc on the human body and robs us of our Peace.

Today, I invite you to the leisureliness of eternity, as a meditation and a practice. Here in So. California we face more possible rain and flood warnings. I am grateful for the local police, fire, and city messaging across L.A. County that maintains safety by keeping residents updated in potential emergencies during storms and other events. It is an efficient system. Knowing that brings calm to a storm. And knowing that in the context of a larger Spiritual landscape, reshapes the present moment with the clarity to act, if and when, action is called for. Then, the context of "act now" becomes your specific movement of Life in the vastness of the All, free of false shouts of urgent. This is 21st Century spirituality--our place, right now in the space of leisurely eternity. Why not embrace it? (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../upon-time-and-eternity

https://allpoetry.com/Presence-of-Eternity

https://www.rhianbowley.com/2014/04/urgently/

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/

February 11, 2024

This week brings Valentine's Day, a day that for centuries celebrated romantic love. In time, largely promoted by commercial interest, the holiday expanded to include all levels of love, from classroom friendships to spiritual connections, and retaining its vague origins related to religious sacrifice. It's interesting to consider the broadening expanse of the holiday over time as culture molds and reshapes the meaning and terms of our attachments to one another. Valentine Day itself, no matter which level of love and connection is significant to us personally, shapes our human framework for understanding of, and living with, the emotion of love. That framework includes seeking love, defining relationships, and healing from hurt, as well as living with decidedly long term friendships and companionship.

Thinking of this, last week's torrential rain is still on my mind. As I sat with the continuous rain and severe weather warnings, I recalled the story of a couple who had struggled and saved money for a week's vacation to explore the Grand Teton's majestic mountains and trails in Wyoming, only to face day after day of unrelenting rain, confining them to the lodge. An elderly man stood out among vacationers congregating in the lodge, struggling to salvage some sense of enjoyment. The elder remain joyful, delighting in conversation, an occasional card game, or simply reading in the open lobby. As the week ended, the husband of the very disappointed, grumbling couple finally asked this old man, how he could possibly enjoy passing time in the storm. The elder simply responded with, "When it rains, I let it." Letting it rain with news of atmospheric rivers, mudslides, and wind disasters, while transporting grandchildren home from school to wait out more rain, was a real challenge. Letting it rain, I discovered, really is a form of healing--an exercise in faith vs. fear that sharpens our capacity to let life show the way through the storm.

"When it rains, I let it" runs parallel to letting love be what it is, and letting healing happen. This includes healing of disappointments, losses, uncertainty, betrayal, scars and broken hearts. Yes, modern psychology offers all sorts of tools for healing emotional wounds. Just like letting it rain can include a trusty new umbrella, attention to water flow, alternative power sources, and flood warnings, are all a part of letting it rain. Can we learn to trust by letting go as love runs its course, a course that includes the healing of our hearts. Hearts heal when we let them. Love finds us, when we let it. There is a naturalness that blesses us, when we let it be. (Susan Nettleton).

For more: https://hillsidesource.com/daily.../2018/6/26/loves-guidance https://high-road-artist.com/.../the-truelove-by-david.../ http://www.phys.unm.edu/.../walcott_loveafterlove.html

February 4, 2024

Ah, February has entered 2024 with its symbol of and messages of love. But before fulfillment, the story of love is often the story of longing. As I write this, L.A. county and coastal California is under constant weather warnings on an upcoming, destructive storm that I'm sure has stirred a collective longing for "simpler times" before the age of Climate Change. There is a haunting kind of human longing that we cannot always name, that causes the mind to reach for what it does know, to understand and find fulfillment for an unnamed desire. We understand the world in categories, defined by naming. Sometimes we gain further insight from other languages, like the German word Sehnsucht which carries a shade of yearning that goes beyond the English form. It expresses a more obsessive pull for a fulfillment beyond the reach of right now. It may be for relationship, or for a particular person, or place, or even time. We feel incomplete; the richness of life is incomplete. It isn't just the pain of missing someone or something, because with it comes the element of times of past happiness and the possibility or potentiality of fulfillment in the future, but right now, it is not there. Instead, there is sadness, melancholy, and longing all mixed in.

Many philosophical and spiritual writers have have pursued the theme of Sehnsucht and it's relationship to the Unknown and perhaps, Unknowable. It is possible that our heartaches of love and our happy moments of connection--in all forms--are ultimately but rungs or shadowy mirrors of awareness of our true being: we are aspects of the Source of All. The English word "belonging" holds that root "longing" and gives us a clue that longing is in the pull to belong. Modern commercialism and social media exploit the human need to belong by bridging the gap, offering toys, clothes, life-styles, behaviors that define us as belonging. They use the power of sensory stimulation and modeling to create longing for specific commercial products in the exploitation of human longing for cultural belonging. It cannot satisfy the underlying pull to awakening, to realization of our enfoldment in the Unity of Life. We are led by THAT longing.

Today I encourage you to a new awareness of your own longings and the layers of meaning they hold for you. When I look backward as this storm approaches here, I remember the frequent storms on the Gulf Coast where I grew up in Houston. There were radio and TV warnings and devastation along the beaches; there was also excitement and wading in the streets, as we literally watched boats float by in the flooded boulevard. All this was the Way of Life then. I feel no need to return to it. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that through literature, "You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." In 2024, we have so many additional ways to communicate universal longings that re-enforce an awareness that we ALL belong. The Way of Life now meets us as new forms, new knowledge, new pressure to move forward, not back--in union, not-conflict and one upmanship. Let that longing pull you forward into the unfolding, creative belonging that is Love. To Be is to belong here. (Susan Nettleton)

As Larry Morris wrote in his poem "Love's Barrier":

... and where is the Love in all this?

Mirabai would say,

your longing is for the Love

and that Love is in the longing itself.

Love dissolves the self

better than anything."

Further thoughts: https://yourmindfultribe.org/.../jiisw4jleqkp6goup5jeoz3e...

https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../2018/5/18/significance

January 28, 2024

Today, as January, with its initial burst of the New Year, is drawing to a close, we can slowly slip back into cultural cross-currents that bury our positive possibilities in the highlights of negative news, conflict and blame. One way to move pass such tension is to ignore it for a while to re-focus on what is personally uplifting for you. While we don't magically erase, or completely withdraw from the human struggle around us, we can restore a sense of balance to life. That balance provides stability; stability is a platform where we are grounded enough to take leaps into the Creative, the Unknown, even the over-arching experience of Allness. In other words, there is a process at work here--a collective agreement of a "New Year", full of celebration and excitement, followed by waves of struggle with ourselves and each other, with situations, belief systems, and exploitation of the opening that a new year brings. We are prone to winter withdrawal. We can retreat to hopelessness, or back to our previous patterns of routine, or we can retreat to nurture ourselves and our close circle, restoring balance as a more stable platform.

Last November, I posted a link for the short poem "It's Yours" by Larry Morris. Here it is in Facebook format:

"What is coming to you

Is already in you

Awaiting its moment."

It's a perfect description of the spiritual path with all it's twists and turns and moments of awakening. Awakening, although we call paradoxically call it "new", is not new. It has always been with you, in you, is you.

Yesterday, I vowed I would go for a walk. The short, very busy days of December and January had taken away my walks. Now it was warm and sunny. I couldn't slip away from my computer until almost 3 p.m., but finally I went outside. I headed for my favorite route, not far, along a treelined street and up to another--a quaint, winding side street bordered by giant, aged, twisting oak trees and cobble stone walls. There are blooming bushes--red, orange, yellow petals that float on the air. I had barely turned the corner when I felt the rush of nature's kind energy enfolding me. The tree limbs arch across the street and form a canopy with their partner trees on the other side, further pulling all things into their care. Incredibly tall, lustrous pine trees with a magnificent mountain behind them, greet you as you round the corner. "THIS is what I needed," echoed inside me. I had thought I needed to stretch these stiff legs of a digital lifestyle, but this was not about physical exercise. This was my New Year moment. May today bring yours. If not, remember it is already in you. Your moment will come. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://allpoetry.com/.../14326744-Longing-is-like-the...

https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../invitation-by-mary-oliver/

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498543-Change-by-Kathleen-Raine

For Jack Correu's post on the New Year: https://hillsidesource.com/little-shack-begins-the-new-year

January 21, 2024

Today's post is an excerpt--the beginning and ending points--from this morning's Zoom talk:

This morning I'm speaking on "If Only". Here we navigate the border between fantasy (if only it were true or another imagined way), frustration (if only it this had not happened, or if only it wasn't like this), and manifestation (actual expression). The idea of this talk erupted after meditation, as I reflected on a powerful sense of consciousness and the goodness of life and wondered if this goodness of life, and our capacity to be conscious of that good, is chicken or egg. Does the goodness of life seize my awareness, or does my affirmation of good as a conscious choice, when I choose to believe life is good, and refocus my attention on the good, does that activity actually shape reality, so that life reflects and bends to that Goodness? I raise the question this new year, 2024, in the form of our 'If Only' responses to life events-- our options of conflict and dissatisfaction, or accepting life as it is, or re-shaping life...

The real value of' 'If Only' is found in the shift to 'What If'? But the paradox is that if we are always asking "What If?, we miss the deep contentment of what IS. With 'What If' though, we take our block, our discontent and turn it to possibilities. I say possibilities, plural, because part of the problem with 'If Only', is that we often mean 'only if'. In other words, we get stuck on one solution to our discontent. Yet, discontent drives us to creativity and change. Creativity that takes us beyond discontent has more that one possibility; its movement is multi-directional. There's a simple technique you can try: sit down and generate 10 possible 'What If's', instead of the one 'If Only'! Chances are they will range from re-do's of the past, to current practicality that may seem unlikely, to a few wild cards, seemingly fantasy. You can leave one as the possibility you don't yet see, but assume is there. This list makes room, openings for movement. When your head or feelings echo 'If Only'...pull out the 'What If' list. Besides stimulating creativity and opening alternatives, there is research to suggest unwanted thoughts, in this case thoughts of a painful 'if only', are triggered by the brain's association with common words that can spark an endless loop of negative thoughts. As a personal experiment, you have your positive possibility list to cultivate as a 'What If' to divert the 'If Only' thinking.

Not all creativity arises from discontent. A contented mind, theoretically is Taoist: life is movement itself, nothing remains static no matter how it feels; the Taoist mind moves with Life in contentment. Is that always possible? Perhaps we learn to be Content with our discontent and in that sense, move forward. St. Paul wrote, "I have learned whatsoever state I am in, there in to be content." This may well include the state of discontent. Otto Rank wrote that love of life was the essential thing for creativity, the love that pushes the desire to enhance life. Can you see your discontent in the context of a love of life and the push to enhance? Or as modern science offers, the potential to understand, to solve, and improve? This is God--the act of a creative intelligence, acting on and through human intelligence, life acting on life. joyously bringing the new into form--the Good, the Beautiful, the True. Yes, the Goodness of Life seizes my awareness, pressing on me possibilities, and I consciously choose to accept life as good, by attending to the good, to positive possibilities and activity--mental, emotional, physical--activity shapes reality. Life extends, enhances, reflects and bends to its own Goodness as you and I. And so it is. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry from this morning: https://www.poemist.com/ray.../if-only-we-had-taller-been

https://onbeing.org/poetry/go-to-the-limits-of-your-longing/

https://poets.org/poem/elegy-joy-excerpt

January 19, 2024

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, January 21, 2024

with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: If Only..

Date: January 21, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time

If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.

January 14, 2024

Today I want to share with you a very short affirmation that I learned from a prayer by Rev. Dr. Johnny Coleman (1920-2014). She was a powerful New Thought Minister who founded a mega church in Chicago, Christ Universal Temple, as well as the Universal Foundation for Better Living. I heard her speak several times, including her personal story of healing from an incurable illness that spiraled into a crisis of faith, led her to the teachings of Unity, and her own calling to ministry. She spoke boldly of the racism that she encountered in her early studies of New Thought, but that pushed her to find her truth and gave her the freedom to create a phenomenal environment of faith and confidence, granting her not only healing, but the title of "the First Lady of New Thought". The affirmation? "I am sheltered from that which is false."

Over the last few years, there has been amble social research on escalating confusion in America about what is true and what is false, and what is simply unknown. This confusion, sometimes referred to as 'erosion of truth', began prior to the Pandemic, but obviously escalated in a time of uncertainty and isolation. Yet disinformation and outright lies continue to promote division, feed hate, and obscure reason. With this in the background, our focus today is our individual spiritual practice, our personal path and understanding which defines our relationship to God, as we navigate January, 2024. I add to that my belief that God includes all creation (including all people). Affirming, praying for shelter from the false, is one way to find peace without feeding further conflict and ill-will.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. Within the national recognition of his struggles, his achievements and sacrifice--his truth--is another powerful opportunity to deepen your spirituality in 2024. Over the last few years, as I contemplated the divisions and struggles, the world's current military wars and our violent cultural wars, I have thought, "Where is our Gandhi, where is our Martin Luther King?" These were human beings who had their own personal struggles, but over time they grew to manifest deep spiritual understanding. They accepted their role, leading a painful, resolute--yet loving--path to social change, with two over-seeing commitments: non-violence and love. If you have yet to read Martin Luther King, Jr., his life story and writings are another powerful way to begin 2024. (Susan Nettleton)

"Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And from his speech, "Where Do We Go From Here?" (1967)

"And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence...Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that...I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems...He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality."

For poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../LightofYour/index.html

https://sufism.org/origins/rumi/jewels/rumi-a-prayer-2 https://www.saltproject.org/.../martin-luther-king-jr-by...

January 11, 2024

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, January 21, 2024 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: "If Only..."

Date: January 21, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time

If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.

January 7, 2024

"The world is a spinning die, and everything turns and changes: man is turned into angel and angel into man, and the head into the foot and the foot into the head. Thus all things turn and spin and change, this into that,, and that into this, the topmost to the undermost, and the undermost to the topmost. For at the root all is one, and salvation inheres in the change and return of things."...Martin Buber.*

Today, one week into 2024, rather than considering specific goals and New Year resolutions, I am reflecting on a more general sense of direction in the New Year. With the stunning quote above, Martin Buber integrates insight from his study of ancient Taoism with his reflections on the mystic teachings of Hasidic Judaism (18th century to present): The world is a dynamo sustained by alteration.

Buber extends this idea to a spiritual process, quoting the Bible (Genesis 12-1): "Now God said to Abraham, 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.'" Buber interprets God's command "get you out of your country" as metaphor, actually meaning the "dimness you have inflicted on yourself" and similarly, the layers of birthplace, home and kin refer to the "dimness inflicted" on us by family, by mother and father--those who shaped us from birth. He concludes the spiritual message is, "Only then (when we have left that dimness behind) will you be able to go to the land that I will show you."

Metaphysically, this is a reference to spiritual consciousness; we grow out of our "dimness" with the light of new understanding, through a willingness to move beyond what we have known and experienced, to a deeper understanding. Here leaving home, moving, changing, is not about a 'Promised Land', or a physical place. It is a movement in consciousness. It is both individual and collective. Each generation moves our world through change led by collective consciousness. We as individuals, move through our lives in stages of change that reflect both our natural physical processes over time, and our shifts in consciousness. Those shifts in consciousness may be collective (arising from and sustained by our generation) and/or they may be singular, arising from our individual nature, yet contributing to the whole blossoming of life.

In any given time period, change is inevitable. But, change includes modulating forces, moving in a variety of directions, along with the "drag" forces that pull backward, not forward (forces of return) or seemingly frozen. Yet, there is a wholeness, as the world continues to unfold. One glimpse of our personal spiritual participation in this dynamo, can nourish and direct us throughout this year. Sometimes we see it clearly, directly; sometimes subtly, and at other times, it is imperceptible. In what direction is the movement of life pulling you? What alterations call? Are you summoned to the front lines of change, or are you a hidden gem that heals and supports? The possibilities are endless; even now, your way is moving. (Susan Nettleton)

*quotes are from Buber's book Ten Rungs: Hasidic Sayings, "The Rung of the Way", pg. 69-70.

For poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../ANewWorld/index.html

https://www.poetseers.org/.../chuang-tzu-poems/create/

https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/.../I-will-not-die-an...

December 31, 2023

Welcome to the last day of 2023! As we move toward a new year, it's worth reflecting, at least momentarily, how you personally view the shift. Does the ending of 2023 bring relief, enthusiasm for a beginning, or melancholy at the passing of time, or perhaps simply indifference? I often feel it is important to recognize New Year's celebrations as cultural constructs; a new year expresses our human attempt to manage and track time, the idea of 'aging' over time, and cycles of life that parallel cycles of nature's seasons. Around these ideas, we weave the concept of not just starting over, but the idea that as we begin anew, we have the opportunity and space to also shift our behavior, our experiences, ideas and relationships. We can chose to change as we participate in the collective change to a new year. Even though the various religions of the world have different dates for New Years, different mythologies and teachings that surround their celebrations, they all have this element of opportunity for change, and the expectation of renewal and growth that reflects the natural world.

But to have the new, something is released; to have renewal, something must be activated when some aspect of life has reached its stasis. Life is movement, to stand still too long is to stagnate. There are many cultural rituals that surround the world's New Year celebrations, but on the deepest spiritual level, forgiveness cuts through stagnation to release the life forces blocked by our emotions, wounds, and mistakes. Today, I encourage you to reserve a bit of meditation time for forgiveness. Forgiveness can seem like a very complex and difficult thing to achieve, but really that is just our own fear of it. We are afraid that forgiveness will backfire; the problem (insult, wound, pain, infraction, betrayal, disappointment, failure, weakness, etc.) will only continue or worsen. There is little in our current divisive culture that supports forgiveness. Yet, there are multiple psychological research studies which show the positive effects that forgiveness brings to mental and physical health. Forgiveness is freedom. Ignoring the power of forgiveness is to withhold freedom.

Forgiveness work often happens over time, but New Year's Eve forgiveness has an added kick of the collective intent to release the old year and receive the new, with optimism and expectation of positive change. When we forgive on New Year's Eve we link our intent with collective intent, adding a new momentum. In a quiet turning inward, forgive 2023, forgive yourself for any mistakes you feel you have made, real or imagined, forgive those who have trespassed against you, and accept (in faith) their forgiveness. Let it be a release. Of course, people and situations may come to you that you simply are not ready to forgive. Give yourself more time. You cannot do it wrong, just start. On New Year's Day, begin again. Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/coming-and-going-larry-poem

https://www.oocities.org/tokyo/pagoda/1964/hsuchunchien.html

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44316/on-quitting

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54327/to-the-new-year

December 24, 2023

Today is Christmas Eve, a day, and especially a night, that is timelessly tied to the call of Peace. This year that call has been focused on the war zones, especially Gaza, but the Peace of Christmas Eve is not just a reference to ending military war. It is a call to Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All. Peace on Earth is achieved when we realize 'Goodwill' extends to everyone, not just the causes we support and the people we love. Goodwill to All. That means, "well-wishing", a kindly attitude toward others with the expectation and/or blessing that their life will turn out well. Peace and Goodwill feed one another. When we are at Peace, we are not intimidated by others, fearful or threatened (physically or emotionally). When we can find goodwill in our hearts toward others, our sense of peace deepens. It is obviously easier to be generous with goodwill, when there is no conflict. But some people focus so much on their own struggles to be at peace, they simply don't consider the struggles of others, let alone allow themselves a conscious attitude of goodwill. And yes, it is possible to face conflict and/or hostility and still wish another the highest and best outcome for them as well as yourself. We supersede the purely human perspective and hold to a higher Good that includes disagreeable people and life's bullies.

There is a Sufi story about the Persian "wise fool" Mulla Nasruddin, who was attacked by an angry man, thrown down to endure sand kicked in his face. Nasruddin rose up and as the man rode away, Nasruddin shouted blessings on him that included, "May you receive all that you long for". His shocked friends questioned why he would react with such blessings. Nasruddin answered, "Because if he has everything he wants, he won't go around kicking sand in a Sufi's face." In the long run, Goodwill is in our best self interest.

In these times, there is a strong undertow that pulls against peace and goodwill. Even Peace itself can be turned into opposition and conflict. If you have lived long enough, you surely have known some Christmas's without peace. As a medical student assigned to the emergency room at Ben Taub hospital--a major trauma center in Houston--and later, as a Psychiatry resident at UNM Hospital's Psychiatric Center, I sometimes worked Christmas Eve, handling various emergencies all night. Those nights were not, by any means, filled with peace for those with fighting families, drug and alcohol overdoses, and frightening accidents. But it their own way, Christmas Emergency Rooms give shelter from the storms of life. My job was to remember to bring Peace, to let there be some felt peace, some shelter. Human history also includes the grave trespasses of war during Christmas as well as powerful stories of soldiers who agreed to pause for Peace at Christmas, offering the peace of safety. Paradoxically, sometimes it's easier to focus on war and prayers for Peace, than it is to face having to build peace and goodwill in our own complex lives.

My sense is that Christmas Eve as it unfolds into Christmas morning, is an opening to Peace, each year for over 2 thousand years, at a new/renewed depth that expands collective consciousness. You are a part of this, whether or not you have any inclination to Christianity. Regardless of your background and beliefs, you contribute your consciousness to the whole. (And yes, other religious holidays create other collective openings.) Allow yourself Peace tonight. It may arrive in the middle of your Christmas Eve traditions, or while you are avoiding 'the party'; it may hover until the last light is turn off, and you let go to sleep. Don't struggle with thoughts of what comes next; save that for New Years. Let your day lead you to your night of Peace. Offer your goodwill and know that the world receives it. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry of Peace: https://hillsidesource.com/celtic-blessing-of-deep-peace

https://poets.org/poem/christmas-bells

https://www.oldsouth.org/.../files/Christmas.Poem_.pdf

December 17, 2023

Today, I am taking my theme from another neighborhood church Christmas display: Ten magnificent white letters, each about 4 ft. tall, each filled with white tree lights, and set across the hilly lawn, calling passerby's to "BE THE LIGHT". The words echo the spiritual ideal of light that conquers darkness. In Christmas, this ideal is a celebration of Christ's birth, as Jesus himself declared (John 12:8), “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares to the gathering crowd, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 14-16)." The charge to "Be the Light", shifts our spiritual focus away from the separation that gives rise to worship and celebration, to Being--to spiritual expression, to Union.

This Sunday is also Larry Morris's birthday, and so it seems fitting to turn to some of his poetic expressions on Light and savor their meaning as a meditation. In his book, Home At Last, Larry writes of a Light Bringer, updating Jesus's metaphor of hiding a candle under a bushel, and offering instead a warning of Christmas commercialism: "Don't hide your light in a shadowy warehouse of desire." In the brief poem Fullness, the world of nature fulfills us: "The ground filled with leaves, my heart fills with gold light." In Poems from the Moon, "Hope for the future does shine bright inside, dissolving the past, erasing the hurts." "Glimpses of Grace", a small book of aphorisms, brings further fuel for contemplation: "How Light uncovers you" as the daily sun dances across the sky, "Smile lights up a face"...while "Seeking Wisdom, Finding Light"...and "When self crumbles, Light appears." With Apples from the Tree, he consoles us: "The cloud if it comes is only another Way of Light, we can't NOT find it"..."Always we come back to acceptance, this life, this life, so gladness of heart underneath all, and always. Sweet, Sweet. Light, Light. Peace, Peace." The Heart of Life remains a "Lantern of love, holding flames close."

Certainly this Christmas 2023, the world--secular and religious--is calling for Light. Even if you crumble, even it clouds darken, even if all you can offer is your smile, look to see the beauty, and discover your acceptance. This week, be the Lantern, be the Light.

For more poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../StarTeachers/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Youarecloser/index.html

https://hillsidesource.com/end-of-seeking-larry-poem

December 10, 2023

As we move further into December's holiday season here in southern California, Christmas decor is springing up everywhere. The neighborhood churches are posting their programs and sermon topics on their marquis, California style. Yesterday I was inspired by one as I drove past..."Christmas Without the Crazy". In the Christian holiday, we know the "Crazy" of trying to balance gift-giving, Santa traditions, cards, the post office, holiday travel, visitors, year-end parties, Christmas programs, pageants, our own financial limitations, and hopefully, time for meditation and prayer. The Christmas story too easily becomes rote or buried in the sea of "To Do before December 25" list. But this year, "Without the Crazy" also has me reflecting today on Jewish Hanukkah. Tonight, the 4th of the 8 day holiday, prayers will be recited, and 4 of the 8 ritual candles lit. Historically, it is the story of political repression of religion in the conquest of war, then the reversal of victory that led to the reconstruction of the holy Temple, and the miraculous story of the single (1-day) jar of oil that kept candles lit for 8 days. Hanukkah expresses an over 2,000 year tradition that is summed up (similar to what I wrote for Diwali) as the conquest of Light over Darkness. Within all religions are ancient tales that offer modern life meaning, solutions, and yes, the miraculous, that's why they are re-told and celebrated. That is why we give them respect.

The irrational, nonsensical aspect of this December, 2023 is that any religion can still be used by those who seek conflict to spur violence and war. Like a ax aimed to split wood down the middle, there is an energy that aims to disrupt and turn social order against itself. Yet, we (humanity) are capable of coexistence. We (humanity) are intelligent enough to figure out how to do that, how to coexist. At the core of human spirituality, which is expressed in that deepest understanding of one's own religion and the deepest grasping of the heart of our neighbor's religion, the human parts find the Whole. We coexist as a Whole that nourishes us all. Religion that divides makes no sense in this century. That doesn't mean there is one world religion. What a wonder that the human mind and heart has discovered so many facets, so many paths, congruent and incongruent, still leaving room for the Unknown and the Mystery. To me, that is sanity. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/punyabhumi-christmas-larry-poem

https://allpoetry.com/.../13442444--co-existing-by-joseph...

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53900/making-peace

December 3, 2023

Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk, "Resolve: The Will to Yield". I decided to post the end of the talk, the final conclusion, rather than other parts. The audio for today's complete talk will be posted in a week or two on our website: hillsidesource.com, under "resources, audio files", or a direct link on the home page.

"The idea of being resolute can range into steel resolve. There are stories of the great 16th century zen warrior and writer Miyamoto Musashi, who saw the Warrior as someone who mastered various art forms beyond mastery of the sword: tea ceremony, construction , writing, and sumi painting. He separated his religion from his swordsmanship and warrior status, writing "Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help." I mention him because of his quote: "The Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death." Note that Buddhism accepted multiple rebirths and seppuku (suicide, falling on ones own blade) was a noble way to die in the face of defeat. (I have to admit this form of resolve brought to my minds the contemporary safety message of DWTD.*) But it follows the samurai tradition, often tied to Zen, as an aspect of feudal culture that ran from the late 12th to late 19th century. I find it significant that an updated model of the Samurai is still revered, with modern variations that draw from the archetype and its underlying structure or practice in all sorts of endeavors: business samurai, sports, martial arts, entrepreneurs, investment samurai, gaming of course. The appeal of battle is glorified.

Part of the fascination is the mythical sense of being alive in the face of death, of a warrior being capable of total focus, freed from fear, with 360 degree awareness, able to shift when necessary, yet cultured and multi-talented, agile in both mind and body...resolute to do ones ultimate best. Yet, given the horrors or war, including current wars, is this warrior archetype, really a model for our times? On the other hand, this archetype is sometimes used as spiritual metaphor--acceptance of death can be interpreted as willingness to undergo ego death, death of the separate self, and fluidity is seen in terms of going with the chi, or the energy of life, not in opposition or as an attempt to conquer it. Realistically, there are also health benefits to staying fit. While they may require resolve; they don't require force.

Yet, people and paths come in different types, Today, I am offering a more gentle resolve, again one based on love. As Otto Rank wrote, will is what shapes, what choses, a way to become an individual. Our individual will can choose to yield to the larger movement of life, to love that which sustains and supports us all. Lao Tzu said, ... "the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life. " So in your process of discovering your resolve, or fulfilling it, consider the gentle and yielding. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../to-live-in-the-mercy...

https://www.thenatureofthings.blog/.../poetry-sunday-dont...

https://www.appleseeds.org/my-symph.htm

*Dumb ways to die, originally from the Australian rail safety campaign, and now in popular culture and gaming.

December 1, 2023

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, December 3, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: Resolve: The Will to Yield

Date: December 3, 2023

Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time

If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.

November 25, 2023

On Thanksgiving Day, I learned that, despite our family's shopper having loaded up on groceries at 4 different stores the evening before, we were short a few items, and I was designated last-minute-pick-up-person. After checking store hours, I decided to give Ralphs a try. Although I often frequent smaller neighborhood markets, during the Pandemic I adapted to online grocery orders and simple parking lot pickups at Ralphs, a real grocery store. Now I was actually going back inside on Thanksgiving Day! I had forgotten the sheer volume and size of that store. It overflowed with aisles of fresh veggies and fruit, and refrigerated rows of choice after choice. Wow! Customers were rushed, but upbeat, and well...friendly, as I wove in and out and around baskets. My list was a short 5 items, but I couldn't help myself, and added extra treats along the way. The kind young checker was friendly too, asking about my plans, joking with me about the last minute ingredients. We laughed together and wished each other a fine celebration. As I loaded my own car, I felt a sense of a larger community, still working to dissolve remnants of our years of Pandemic isolation. Holidays are avenues for healing.

As this weekend comes to a close and Gaza war hostages are being released on both sides, it seems to me a powerful time to self-reflect, not just on gratitude, but also empathy and forgiveness. Empathy is an aspect of forgiveness; gratitude is the other side of forgiveness. Gratitude is an antidote to a critical, complaining, dissatisfied mood and mind. Gratitude makes it easier to forgive and forgiveness makes its easier to be grateful, beyond the obvious level of 'getting what we want' in situations. Empathy aids this process in the world of human relationships.

A very simple definition of empathy is our capacity to perceive events from another's perspective. That implies an understanding that other people are not just reflections of ourselves, our beliefs, and value systems. "Another's perspective" includes emotional responses as well as their cognitive interpretations and physical reactions. Human empathy is a powerful force in social stability and coherence, and promotes both concern for and the desire to help others. A collective loss of empathy creates schisms in social order. Not surprisingly, there have been several scientific studies showing that empathy has decreased in this country over the several decades, due to various possible causes. In the last few years, the overwhelming news of Pandemic tragedies and fatalities, the sheer workload of health care workers and first responders, and social isolation is believed to have undermined natural empathy through compassion burnout. Additionally, social media is believed to play a role, as real time social interaction is reduced further and further to meme's, artificial facial expressions, and robotic voices. (Visual facial clues play an important role in empathy.)

Empathy, gratitude, forgiveness--all play a part in our reconciling human events with our spiritual life. Although these are qualities we can study, explore, choose to cultivate through practice, or resist, resent, and dismiss, they naturally spring from the human heart. It is possible that--like flowers in sunlight--we need real world, face to face interaction with other people, for these to blossom. Try your own experiment and see. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetic perspective: https://grateful.org/resource/belonging/ https://onlyart.org/poets/william-stafford/assurance/

November 19, 2023

This Sunday as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I encourage you to find a space of gratitude and spend some time there. To me, this is an inner space, but not limited to just our inner life. There are certainly outer spaces that hold gratitude for each of us. Outer spaces can kick start an inner opening; outer spaces can provide structure and sanctuary that ground us, giving us a kind of freedom and safety to feel, listen, explore what are often are structureless emotions. We need a space, inner or outer, to access genuine gratitude.

The culture is already bombarding us with 'standard protocol' (who to see/what to do/where to be, what to eat/drink, how to feel) in expectation of Thanksgiving Day. These scripts are in addition to our own group dynamics and family traditions. The news this weekend predicts over 55 million Americans will travel this week. Weather predictions in the East Coast areas warn of storms, setting the stage for disruptions and possible emergencies, mixing positive anticipation of visits with more anxiety. Black Friday marketing, now fused with not just the day after Thanksgiving, but what has become a season of bargains and savvy shopping, adds to the cultural menu. And, the background of larger world issues: war, climate change, political conflicts (including history), can weigh heavy like the impending storms.

Despite all this, a collective practice of Thanksgiving holds powerful positive possibilities. It connects us not just a challenged American myth, but the reality of ancient, even timeless, feast days across the globe, arising from human dependency on one another and on the natural world. Gratitude to the forces of life, for sustaining life and specifically human life, extends beyond humanity and nature, to mystery, to reverence, and an impulse--the heart's pull to thank the very Source of life we call God, in all It's forms and names.

To truly be a part of that pull, that prayer, that communion, we need a space for gratitude, an empty space, a space for the real, not fabricated or forced. We let gratitude sprout. Your heart/mind/body does not need you to force yourself to be grateful. This has nothing to do with what you should, ought, or must feel. If no gratitude arises, just hold the space reserved for it. Listen to what is real and true for you, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to the manufactured world. Gratitude is a seed. It will grow, it will be real, and much needed in this world. Happy Thanksgiving. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetic reflection: https://hillsidesource.com/lifes-energy-larry-poem

https://www.poetseers.org/.../mary-oliver-poems/the-sun/

https://grateful.org/.../because-of-libraries-we-can-say.../

https://grateful.org/resource/awe-james-crews/

November 15, 2023

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, December 3, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: Resolve: The Will to Yield

Date: December 3, 2023

Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time

If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.

November 12, 2023

"When the heart is right

'For' and 'against' are forgotten."--Chuang Tzu

This morning, I am reflecting on duality, expressed as the human tendency to divide life (events, people, opinions, etc.) into two often conflicting opposites, augmented by all or nothing thinking. This inherent tendency in human thinking is a short cut for organizing and managing the complexities of life, but it also is a short-sighted, over simplification that limits creative thought, blocks positive, intelligent exchange, and ignites conflict. Divisive, dualistic thought undermines spiritual peace. War, in turn, brings a surge of dualism. Today culminates this weekend of Veterans Day ceremonies, honoring American military veterans. The holiday is more palpable now with a sober background of war in Gaza and Ukraine and military units that serve in, or wait near, war zones.

Today also begins Hindu Diwali, a 5 day Festival of Light that includes the Hindu New Year, and is increasingly celebrated in the U.S. Diwali traditions include ancient stories of the triumph of good over evil, the spiritual theme of the holiday. Light conquers darkness; knowledge conquers ignorance; good prevails. Duality then, ultimately dissolves in this Festival of Light. The problem is our human perspective. In war, all sides claim to be the force of light. A spiritual life that is grounded in participation in the world can become painfully confusing when there is social perception of only two groups, with social demand to choose your side. Underlying this demand, is the fundamental construct of duality as the core of human conflict: "them vs. us".

When we turn to Biblical thought, the idea of duality is further confounded, with Jesus' statement in Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30: "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters." Yet, in another context, his disciples announce they have shut down those who are not "with" Jesus but had dared to cast out 'demons' in his name. Jesus instructs the disciples not to interfere, saying "for the one who is not against us, is for us." (Luke 9:50 and Mark 9:40). There are so many varying interpretations and manipulations of Jesus' words. The key, in my mind, is the spiritual intent underlying each situation. His words "with me" refer to gathering together, rather than scattering apart. It is a call to gathering in spiritual union, which is love, not division. Division scatters. Love unites. Jesus words echo Chuang Tzu. "When the heart is right, 'for' and 'against' are forgotten." This is spiritual Peace, the root of all peace. (Susan Nettleton)

For Chuang Tzu's poem: https://www.wisdom2be.com/gems-poetry-wisdomstories/when-the-shoe-fits-by-chuang-tzu?rq=Chuang%20Tzu%2C%20

For righting the heart:

https://www.templebuddhistcenter.com › articles-mini-lessons › theheatofmidnighttears

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhataHumanIs/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Iambeginning/index.html

November 5, 2023

Today's post is in remembrance of Dr. Larry Morris (Dec. 17, 1939-Nov. 4, 2015). Since his passing, I have come across various yet to be published "Positive Thoughts" and poetry to share with you today as we begin November. They carry a message of this life as a spiritual process that enfolds ourselves, our relationships, and our planet in 2023. (Susan Nettleton)

"Order--There is an order throughout this universe. Physicists sometimes describe the patterns in nature as marked by an eloquence of precision and intelligence. This universe itself is filled with intelligence. Einstein said: 'God doesn't play dice with the universe.' The universe flows in order and harmony. Seasons on this earth flow in orderly sequence. Day and night alternate in a harmonious measured rotation. Rain softens the earth and the sun warms it so that life can grow. We inhabit a universe that supports and sustains us in harmony and order--so we can relax."

"Family Breakthrough--Let's breakthrough all of our old ways of relating the people in our lives. Let's begin to see our family--our closest loved ones--in a new light. There's a spiritual dimension to family life. Each of our family members is a unique individual unlike anyone else in this universe. As we surrender our habitual thoughts and feelings about our loved ones, we instantly enter into a new and freeing relationship with them. Instead of worry and pressure, we begin to experience our family as joy and harmony and new possibilities. We allow a newness that unites us to each person in our family to reveal the real depths of Love."

"Vision of Beauty--Once in a jungle in India, an explosion of beauty penetrated my heart to the core. For the first time in my life, I knew the transforming power of beauty. Each of us, everyday, can be healed, uplifted and transformed by simply allowing ourselves to be in touch with the beauty that surrounds our lives. From the infinite wonder of the sky to the tiniest gesture of a small child, from a singe glowing flower to the vast mountains around us, we live in a world of beauty. Open your heart to beauty today." (Larry Morris)

For Larry poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/howdy-larry-poem

https://hillsidesource.com/before-the-clouds

https://hillsidesource.com/an-ordinary-life-larry-poem

https://hillsidesource.com/its-yours-larry-poem

For those of you who did not know Larry, you can find a short biography on our website at: https://hillsidesource.com/churchhistory (scroll down the page.) And for info on our 2024 Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship, https://hillsidesource.com/scholarship.

Anyone who wants to write about Larry can do so on the memorial site, Forever Missed, at.drlarrymorris.forevermissed.com