June 30, 2024

This last week in June as summer deepens in an uncertain climate, I have been reflecting further on the our physical senses and the relationship of our sense nature to spirituality. Many religious teachings throughout world history have shunned our natural senses in a belief that love of the sensuous distracts us from the true depths of spirituality. Still today, we have ideas that meditation requires us to turn away from external sights, sounds and movement that distract the mind's focus from turning inward. While meditation does move us from outer activity to inner stillness, it really isn't necessary to run from sense input. Rather, I propose considering meditation as a process that moves our awareness to more and more subtle expressions of vision, scent, sound, touch and taste. The idea that we have to turn from the physical input of an external world to experience intuition and/or the true nature of the self, sets in motion a polarized belief that our sense nature and the natural world around us, is somehow at odds with our inner life, making it spiritually necessary to be detached from our physical form.

Ancient religions in an attempt to access and connect to spiritual realms with little understanding of the neurophysiology of the human body, drew a dividing line between our outer senses and our inner longing for understanding. Buddha taught in terms of the problem of attachment to the things of the world, which themselves are in motion. In other words, those attachments are inevitably subject to change. Wanting more of whatever pleasurable experiences we have, or emotional reliance on those aspects of life which we grow to crave at the expense of other ways of seeing and being, ultimately brings suffering. These are indeed potential pitfalls in life--not allowing life to change or develop--or even age, which is the nature of life. My focus today is about opening to the wondrous beauty of that which allows us to perceive and relate to the Allness. I am encouraging you to bring your physical senses to the table as it were, to more and more subtle forms of awareness.

I began reflecting on the more subtle aspects of sense this week at the grocery store. As I eyed the snack shelves, I was struck by a growing pitch for "intense" snack experiences--labels like intense "heat" or "flavor", and intense beverages -from soda to alcohol to caffeine! With the obvious exception of pure hot chili peppers, this marketing trend brings a variety of lab generated additives. It is not just food and the sense of taste here that is exploited, but a push for intense stories, news, films, music, the sharp and demanding push of our bodies in sports and fitness calling you to feel the burn. But, do we need increasingly intense experiences? Evidently, intensity is good for marketing. And clever marketing feeds a cultural pressure that offers bonding through both sensory challenges and competition, especially among the young who have yet to develop caution.

My reflection on the subtle senses brought to mind French philosopher François Julien's book: In Praise of Blandness (2007), which explores the early Chinese Taoist practice of cultivating sensory experiences of blandness. Blandness was perceived as a way to move toward sameness, and through that, understand the "undifferentiated foundation of all things". In other words, the Tao, the undifferentiated energy of life, brings the 10,000 things into form. I invite you to experiment with your senses on subtler levels. Inner hearing is not disconnected from the outer sounds of the world; the same is true with taste, vision, touch (the touch of spirit, the touch of God, the angelic touch), with scent (the air that brings a mysterious whiff of perfume), a song arising and awakening, and sound that echos the past--or future... This is not to cultivate the "extra sensory", but to discover the larger frame of guidance and relatedness of a larger world. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://allpoetry.com/Five-Senses

https://ortizpoetry.blogspot.com/.../12/my-fathers-song.html https://www.best-poems.net/mary.../at_blackwater_pond.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../hearing-56d221d141610

June 23, 2024

It was a fairly simple moment Friday evening, as I parked my car in my usual curb parking spot, and felt the need to sit still in the front seat...just stop and be still. I wasn't really meditating, but I've been a meditator for so long, that just sitting "on pause" for a moment sparks a meditation connection. I looked down the tree lined street that brought shade while the Heat Wave--or Southern California's share of it--scorches the country. These trees arch high above the electrical wires; curved branches on the south-side meet mirroring branches on the north side, while dropping purple blossoms in a slight breeze. They give peaceful shelter for birds, squirrels, raccoons, lizards, tiny life forms, insects. There is shade for larger animals too, beyond the many dogs (on daily walks with their people friends) and even shade for bears, an occasional mountain lion, or a lean wolf down from the mountain, looking for food. This Friday evening the angle of the sun sprinkled rays of golden light across the clumps of branches. What a view! And for a moment, I was keenly aware of the act of Seeing.

Maybe it was because my eye doctor had recently changed the prescription on my contact lenses, or maybe it was the contrast of the brutal heat lifting when I turned the corner to my shady street, but I was flooded with the sense of sight. What an amazing thing: Seeing. We know that not everyone has sight or full sight. Aging, along with all sorts of life events can dim or damage sight, but I was struck with the sheer wonder that sight exists at all, let alone the addition of our other senses. It is the composite of those other senses that compensate should others fail. As I sat in the car, I shifted briefly to an awareness of evening bird song....listening...but was pulled back to the view. This encounter was really about watching.

Yet, there is a paradox here when we talk of human beings belonging to, or immersed in, the world of nature and the Allness of life, because to 'see' in this way is a distancing of immersion. I remembered a lady from the earlier years of Hillside Church who told me about a sudden realization she had as she prayed for understanding of her spiritual life and her role in it all. An inner voice answered that she was a "witness". This brought her peace. Sitting in the car, I agreed; I was witnessing the Wonder, but I also was witnessing my capacity to see. This is a point of separation. To see is seemingly separation. The tree has become an object; the self, I, "stand" outside the tree, witnessing that Wonder. I thought of the Biblical quote in Genesis 1:31, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." And yet God, the Transcendent, is both Creator and Created. Confounded, our logic moves to separate. Sitting in the car after a day of dust and heat, then the play of light and shadow, coolness of shade and shade as shelter, I saw the Beauty of it all. A tiny part of me in some unfathomable aspect of Divine Vision, rests in All, God, seeing through my eyes, naming it Good and very Good. Today is a day to trust your outer vision. Look. Simply Look. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://poeteecummings.weebly.com/i-thank-you-godpoem.html

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

https://www.yogawithsusana.com/post/the-ponds-by-mary-oliver

June 16, 2024

Today is Fathers Day, the holiday that mirror's Mother Day, completing the traditional parental unit. Like Mother's day, Father's Day has extended to acknowledging the significance of those who express the father-like role of support in our process of growing up and maturing. That extension is particularly meaningful to those who grow up with no father or limited support for meeting basic needs --food, clothing, shelter, health care, essential learning and development of skills--to build the assurance that our lives matter, that we are valued and loved. In the 21st century, with both traditional, or reversed, or shifting male/female roles within family life, and new models of gender fluidity, Father's Day is open for a wide band of interpretation and options. Still, it is worth contemplating this time of year ( Mother's or Father's Day), your own assessment and gratitude for those who have sheltered you, guided and supported you, and contributed to your becoming.

Beyond this, spiritually we have the ancient model of God as Father. While the Divine Mother plays a complementary role in religious thought, the role of "God as Father of us all" remains a deeply entrench model and metaphor. Indeed for those who have had absent fathers, or traumatic loss, or neglect or family violence, the idea of a loving God as your Transcendent Father can be healing. God as the Ultimate creator of all, including human beings, a God who can and does protect, guide and sustains your life, a God who loves Creation and thereby loves You, and returns you to Himself, can bring great Peace. Of course, in our dualistic religious constructs, there are religious teachings that warn that the same God can, with great wrath, punish and reject, if we stray from the rule book or put other things, people, ideas before reverence and love of God. Religious structure can define contractual terms that leave the threat outweighing the benefit. But when spirituality is a matter of the heart, when forgiveness is enfolded in communion with our Highest reaching for the All, naming that Father (or Mother for that matter) repairs the scars of childhood.

There is yet another paradoxical idea of you as father of God. I am not writing of the idea that God is just our fabricated Father figure to comfort our confusion and fear, but as the poet Rilke wrote, in essence we are extensions of God, moving God into form to express, through feelings, through creativity, thereby, expanding the dimensions of life. Our willingness to care and support the expression, livingness, being-ness of God is our "father" role. This is worth contemplating whenever you bring forth something new or you encourage others in their life's expression: This is your or their contribution and support of the magnificence of Life. Even our attempt to put into words our spiritual depths, carries the Mystery of God to fuller expression. We nurture a growing God. Happy Father's Day! (Susan Nettleton)

"...So God, you are the one who comes after. It is sons who inherit, while fathers die. Sons stand and bloom. You are my heir."

from Rilke's Book of Hours, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, Riverhead Books, New York, 1996.

Poetry: https://poemsforyourtalisbag.blogspot.com/.../you-god-who... http://www.lifeofasaiseeker.com/.../rilkes-book-of-hours... https://www.thatenglishteacher.com/.../ortizs...

June 9, 2024

Today's post is an excerpt from my Zoom talk this morning on "Spiritual Surrender".

...The common definition of surrender is giving up something; what is that something? It could be an object, a thing, property, relationship, argument-- giving up something that is yours to someone else, with the implication that you have been forced to, or, it is necessary to do so. ... Surrender implies by nuance, conflict. There is an element of loss and/or control in surrender, especially when used in a legal sense. We give up fighting because we are tired of the fighting or we realize the cost of fighting is too great, (that could be legally, financially, or the physical cost of the fight, or emotional cost, mental cost)--it's too much work to keep whatever it is.

Surrender includes admission, but we often, actually give up without admitting to ourselves or anyone else that we have given up and stopped trying. We agree to some conciliatory plan to prevent others from being angry; we agree to get along, and try to not upset them. But is this surrender? Bargaining is another idea--I'll give up this, you give up that, it will work out. Sometimes, we use reasoning to resolve conflict. But here's the spiritual thing, are our conflicts with others, and things, and events, separate from our spiritual life? A separate category? Is spiritual surrender only about our spiritual life? Spiritual surrender is Giving Way. Depending on your construct of spiritual, that can mean giving way to God's will, rather than your will-- but underneath that thought is still a division, a distinct separation of God and person. Alternatively, spiritual surrender assumes the spiritual movement of life that runs through all. In which case, we are giving way to that movement. And where do we locate the movement of life? It's here, right now. Whatever is going on. So there is a time of spiritual surrender that is acceptance of what is happening, whatever it may be. A surrender to movement, flow, and events. In other words, we don't fight daily life.

...Still society's collective consciousness can pull us into fear and/or anger/blame that disturbs our capacity to surrender. Again, Spiritual surrender is not so much about giving in as it is about giving way to life's movement. We face heat and storms, in a season that archetypally is a time when nature offers freedom. Surrender now includes a changing environment, a summer that pushes us to a new awareness: climate can and does change--climate as weather, but also, climate as mass migration, of shifting wildlife, new forms of life and disappearance or disruption of our relationship to the animal world. A changing atmosphere that is not just about weather, but atmosphere in terms of social support, agreement vs conflict, and unrest. The Surrender I am encouraging includes surrendering to a changing environment, as multiple strategies emerge that will have to be negotiated and navigated. We cannot come to breakthroughs without surrendering the past, opening to what is in front of us to do.... I am saying that in surrender, there is support. We tend to think of surrender, especially spiritual surrender as, in a sense, subjugation--a should, a supposed to, subjugating ourselves. But surrender is support. The act of letting go, brings connection. In surrender, we recover connection. In essence, we surrender to our true identity, that by the nature of configuration, we cannot grasp: We are Life itself.

(Susan Nettleton)

for some of this morning's readings: https://www.designingyourlife.coach/.../for-earth-day-in... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../the-promise-we-live-by https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../culture-and-the...

June 7, 2024

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, March 24, 2024 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: Summer Surrender

Date: June 9, 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.

June 2, 2024

Last week, already on overload with work and family commitments, I was up early to face my "to do" list. As I headed to pull together breakfast, I was suddenly struck how much clutter had accumulated, during the last very busy 3 months. Too much stuff. Spring was passing into summer--whatever happened to the idea of spring cleaning? Caught between the inner pressure to tackle disorder and the need to get to my computer tasks, I suspected I was in avoidance mode. The solution, I told myself, was the 5 item rule--my default cleaning mode. I put away 5 items from the dish drainer, quickly washed the 5 items in my sink, and randomly sorted one bookshelf that was overloaded, tossing 5 unnecessary accumulations. Next my eye caught the build-up on the dresser. Part of me thought "get to the computer, Susan", and another part was drawn to the dresser corner. I succumbed to what felt like further procrastination. Under a pile of notes that I quickly tossed in the trash, I found what my unconscious had been seeking: my buffalo necklace.

The buffalo necklace is a beautiful bronze cast, flat on the back, contoured on the front, with both a pin and a small chain hook, so that it can be worn as either way. It was made by a Winnebago Tribe artist and I found it at an Native American art fair many years ago in the red rocks outside Jemez. I didn't know I was searching for it the day as I wandered through the artists' displays, wanting to buy something, but not sure what. When I saw it on a table of jewelry--mostly turquoise and silver--I was awed by it's detail, and touched it momentarily. Something inside me shook. I walked away, but was hit with waves of tremors--what in yoga is called kriyas, involuntary waves of spiritual energy, a release of kundalini energy. I wandered through the fair until the shaking stopped and I had seen enough. I wanted the buffalo. For me it was a reminder of why I had left Houston when I completed medical school and why I had moved to Albuquerque and a four year psychiatry residency at the University of New Mexico. That decision came in a deep meditation experience along with a vibrant image of buffalo in a fenced field. The next day, the mail brought the UNM residency program booklet, with my buffalo vision on the cover.

When I found my necklace again, buried under the stack of "stuff", I put it on. I meditated and sat down to work with the quiet reminder of my calling and the spiritual ground of being. My point here for your consideration this Sunday, is not just that there's still time for some spring cleaning. Beyond that, I want to remind you that seemingly routine chores of life are not separate from your worldly goals, nor your spiritual path. In the pull to procrastinate, generated by a nagging need to re-establish order, I was led back to the foundation of my life and work. Guidance is everywhere. Even in our resistance. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://literaturevaults.com/spring-cleaning/ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../its-hard-to-keep-a... And from Larry Morris: "June is the Joy of God"

God's love is the warmth-shedding June don't think, smell the lilacs don't fret, let the crickets fill your ears with love songs from God

May 30, 2024

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, June 9, 2024 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: Summer Surrender

Date: June 9, 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.

May 26, 2024

Recently my neighbor added a new beauty to his garden that has haunted me this week---a large hybrid rose bush, a tricolored wonder of purplish red roses, creamy petals with barely visible pink streaks roses, and sunshine yellow roses, all springing from the same "trunk". It is an amazing vision of human-designed grafting and nature's possibilities, a fitting tribute to America's Memorial Day Weekend. Monday, of course is the official holiday of Memorial Day, honoring U.S. personnel, who have died in service in to the country and is particularly focused on those who died in war. Yet strangely, perhaps because the 3 day weekend that was created by this federal holiday on the last Monday in May, it has marked the "unofficial" beginning of summer (although solstice summer begins June 20). So this last weekend in May is an American human hybrid creation. Of note, Memorial Weekend brings heavy travel as well as the pull of nature in outdoor celebrations. This year I have to note, the weekend is also bringing warnings of severe weather and intense heat, across the country. The rose bush here though is thriving in cool temperatures and May Gray.

Spiritually, I perceive these holiday celebrations unite in one principle: they are branches of the potential and quest for healing. Honoring those who sacrificed their lives in duty to their country--all individuals, each with their own story--is a collective movement of healing. Yes, it is about recognition and honor, but behind that is also Life's movement of healing from loss, trauma, tragedy, and the human uncertainty of it all. Time heals, recognition heals, honoring the gift heals. To me, it's not difficult to see that movement of healing extending to those who made the sacrifice, beyond the healing of our personal grief.

The counter emotions of summer celebrations are also healing. Why not celebrate life in an age-old appreciation of community, of the light and lightness of summer, of time away from work and routine, all of which can bring healing? Holidays give us the space to heal and repair. The added frightening weather warnings--storms or extreme heat--are nature's wake-up calls. Beyond our personal lives: physical, emotional, mental well-being, we are now marked with the task of coming into another kind of relationship with the natural world, and to do that includes coming into a cooperative spirit with other nations, other cultures, a larger world of possibility and healing.

Today, tomorrow, as your weekend unfolds, consider this a time of healing for you personally. As always, we begin with ourselves, the unique being that we are. Even if you feel whatever needs healing in you and your life is far from war and the history of sacrifice, and far from the revelry of summer and travelers, and you can't bear to deal with severe weather warnings or think about climate change, trust that whatever healing you need, is already active. Your healing matters. You are never left out. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/guest-house/

https://allpoetry.com/.../14326534-When-Great-Trees-Fall...

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

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

May 19, 2024

"The sun goes out whenever the cloud of not-praising comes near." Rumi

In L.A. County, this month is known as "May Gray" and following that, "June Gloom" arrives. The seasonal, almost daily gray, gloomy cloud cover is the result of a complex weather system. Cooler air over the ocean condenses when it meets the warm air masses of California desert lands. The meeting brings low humid clouds that move inland, keeping the air cool and the sky...a muggy gray. I am a sunshine person, so to maintain a sunny outlook, I turn our attention back to the beauty of spring. Even with the grim news of the latest storms hitting Houston and the southeast, and another round of threatening weather across the mid-west, beauty brings a reassuring balance to life. As William Carlos William described in his poem, "The Locust Tree in Flower"--"Among of green stiff, old bright broken branch come white sweet May again." This is a reminder that nature repairs and shelters, even as it uproots and destroys. Our task in the 21st century is to further uncover the mystery of that natural process, finding new ways of being cared for, and taking care of, Nature. Appreciation of May's beauty is one step in that caring.

Of course, beauty is relative to the beholder. Multiple research studies over the last decade have deepened our discovery of the physical and psychological health benefits of time spent in Nature, or even just viewing pictures of Nature outside the field of known exercise benefits. You don't have to be "exercising" to be lifted by a natural environment to have positive health effects (like lower blood pressure). More recent studies zero in on an underlying sense of connectedness to Nature, beyond spending time in natural environments. Perhaps, that consciousness of connectedness holds a key to managing climate change--speculation on my part--but it seems to me worth reflecting on your personal sense of connection with Nature. I myself find such connection in neighborhood walks with ample towering trees and lush gardens along sidewalks. Venturing deeper into wilderness or the ocean beyond a beach (Nature includes both the green and the blue spaces), I find I am more of an observer than immersed in connection. The pull to praise the beauty of it all, lifts and dispels the gray.

Praise is the second theme for this Sunday. The opening Rumi quote above is from his poem "Praising Manners" (link below). It is a reminder of our need to acknowledge the good as Good, especially when life becomes turbulent. Praise, to be genuine, first requires recognition. When we are in relationship, praise includes an acknowledgment of the person, their being-ness. When we are praising Life and God, there is a recognition of Presence. An aspect of praising the Natural world is the recognition of beauty, the impact of beauty on our senses, moods, thoughts. Attending to any of of these levels can open doorways within us. This week, find some time for the beautiful. Let it light your way and lighten your load. Offer your praise. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../praising-manners-by.../

https://hillsidesource.com/openness-poem

https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-peace-of-wild-things/

https://poets.org/poem/pied-beauty

May 12, 2024

May is graduation season for schools and colleges across the U.S.A. This weekend is a favored date for universities and colleges in California, while most grade K-12 continue until the end of the month. Today is also Mother's Day. It's easy to link these two events since mothers and school support are eternally intertwined. (Mothers, in and of themselves, are usually our earliest teachers.) This year, many proud moms, receiving their degrees or proudly celebrating the graduation of children, face the tensions of political protests disrupting campuses ceremonies. Regardless, graduates on all levels will be launched into the next phase of life, contending with and finding their way through our changing times. I am emphasizing the challenges of change as a realistic aspect of Mental Health Awareness month for all of us, including mothers, new graduates, and young children just beginning their path of discovery. In particular, I am advocating for mental health days.

Since the Pandemic, there has been a great deal of public and professional concern on the psychological well-being of children and teens in America. This initiated public and school related programs promoting mental health education and awareness, including the idea of mental health absentee days. In 2022, 12 states formally adopted Mental Health Day school absences, similar to traditional sick days, but not about physical illnesses or injury. (Washington, California, Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Kentucky. Note: Some independent school districts allow mental health days, and some states still debate or simply don't consider it.) Recently, in a strange reversal, some medical and other opinion articles have argued that the educational focus on mental health concern creates the problem. Having read many articles over the past few years on public mental health, spotlighting the role of social media, gaming, inequity, drug use and gun violence, it is troubling to read a trend dismissing significant factors in mental health education. Rather, what is missing in mental health education is insight in the impact of a rapidly changing climate and environment on our collective mental health, including the children that it will impact the most.

Yesterday was the first email reference I have received on this crucial topic. It came as an AMA continuing education offer, announcing: "The year 2023 was the hottest ever recorded and included an unusually high number of extreme weather events, which are signs of a changing climate. This article describes how climate change can adversely affect mental health and suggests ways to mitigate these unfavorable effects... Clinicians should be aware of how climate change may affect mental health to prepare for patients’ evolving needs." Here in California, schools actively participate in environmental awareness, as do other--but certainly not all--school programs across America. That awareness comes with the understanding of responsibility to: "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle". This popular teaching jingle reflects a phenomenal shift in American consumerism. Yet, we are still a culture of cross-currents that include denial and subterfuge, along with our inventiveness, and commitment to recycle, research and adapt. Climate change is a significant unspoken, collective, cultural undercurrent in graduation 2024.

A "mental health day" is defined as taking a day off of work or school to allow for emotional well-being--a break from the pressure of responsibility to spend time in a relaxed, enjoyable, renewing environment that brings well-being and reassurance. It's another way of letting go to the wonder of life, without the burden. We let go, trusting enough to enjoy life around us, without pressure or worry of tomorrow's responsibility. This is the way of resiliency. Ease actually does nurture and strengthen resiliency. Doesn't that sound like spiritual surrender? When the load is too heavy, take that mental health day. (Susan Nettleton)

For recycling song: https://www.fultonschools.org/.../PreK%20Tuesday%20-%20PA...

For graduation: https://poets.org/.../graduation-bolinas-school-june-11-1971 https://poets.org/poem/graduation-bolinas-1973 https://poets.org/poem/graduation-bolinas-1972 http://www.wordslikethis.com.au/today/