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Interesting stories and anecdotes that reach into insights I have gained abroad.
Healing Grief, On-line Course, by Terry Douglas.
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week, on-line course, entitled
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Meditation – March 31, 2009
Posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Scripture: You have made known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
Prayer: Lord, guide my reflection this morning.
Response: The path, you have come to realize, is distinct, unique for each of you. There is a quality about it that you all experience and that is the joy that I shower on you when you let go, release your expectations and accept fully the love that I shower on you. In the letting go, you clearly are present and aware of my presence. There is no circumstance in your life that can thwart this experience of joy. Rather than attempt to challenge this statement by reviewing past events and crises, might I suggest that you simply accept the statement on face value, beginning with this moment?
Put aside, relinquish the hold of all the tasks that lay before you this day – I didn’t not say ignore them as not worthy of accomplishment – rather I said relinquish the hold, the distraction each represents. And for this moment, be in my presence consciously. It is as if you are entering a protective dome of light – golden light – and there everything is revealed as to each circumstance’s significance. You will find there the wisdom to distinguish the intricacies of seemingly insolvable issues related to your life.
Conscious in my presence, you experience a joy that exceeds any expectations that you might have nourished earlier. But conscious you must be, though accept that I never leave your side. This joy breaks through whatever time considerations that you generally associate with time and time constraints. And that joy, even if you can remain awake intermittently, is a hint of the eternal pleasure and joy that await you when you are fully conscious to my love. In the midst of the turmoil of your life, snatch awake this joy.
All for this morning.
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Meditation- March 29, 2009
Posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009
Scripture: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6
Prayer: Tell me more of them. Who are they?
Response: Good question. For each there is a different shadow to haunt you. For some it is illness, finances, relationship, job, age, frustration, responsibility, or anxiety; for some it is a real enemy bent on your destruction as it was for the Israelites. Each shadow has the capacity to freeze you in your steps, interfere with the free flow with which I grace you; have you looking over your shoulder in fear or nodding off into slumber to escape.
And then like someone swinging a wooden hammer against a huge brass gong, I announce my presence – not my arrival – for I have never left. For those who sought solace in unconsciousness, you are jolted awake; for those looking back, your attention is riveted forward, and, yes, those who seemed paralyzed with fear, you feel the blood resuming its easy flow through your veins to supply your heart.
Repeat these last lines of the verse whenever you are so disturbed – for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Now for at least this day, apply the promise to your life even if the circumstances are not quite as dramatic – or maybe they are – as what Moses or Joshua was referring.
All for this morning.
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Meditation – March 27, 2009
Posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009
Scripture: Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:4
Prayer: There are times – perhaps most times – that I become impatient for perseverance to finish its work. Guide me this morning.
Response: Maybe it’s not perseverance that is your challenge but the patience to await the results. Isn’t the experience of life like a race on a river that you have never raced on previously? Once you settle down, because you don’t know how long the race is, as there are no familiar markers to gauge your progress, you lengthen your strokes and concentrate on each single stroke — the single act of rowing. You are focused in the present and, if I might say, you are relaxed. That is perseverance.
So your life, simply stated, is the opportunity to take one stroke, one step, one smile, one embrace, one pause, one prayer, one service, one gesture — and on and on endlessly in the rhythm of this gracious experience of life where you discover almost unwillingly that your journey takes you through endless streams flowing left, then right, always forward. And almost contrary to your expectations you begin to exhibit that patience for which you once were most critical of yourself and others. In that moment of consciousness, enlightenment, you realize that you could continue endlessly – and will.
For today think about how perseverance calls you today.
All for this morning
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Finger-Touch
Posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Finger-Touch
There’s a finger-touch
Separating me from you,
A distance chasm-wide
In this reality
That closes when
I remain present — still.
Not sure you sense
Me stretching wide
Across this divide;
But I do love you,
And in that declaration
Two fingers touch.
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Maditation – March 26, 2009
Posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Scripture: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Prayer: Whenever this verse finds me, I do not tire of its assurance.
Response: It is difficult not to see that this verse is met for you individually and not in some broad, collective sense. Wherever you are this day, the verse serves as my reminder to you this special day that I have plans for you. In the whirl of your activity, sometimes lost to you is that I care. You are like weavers in a huge hall who receive the fiber and intuitively know the pattern on which you are working. And I ask from where that intuition comes? Lost in the swirl of color, the pattern you are forming, you lose sight and appreciation for the work of art to which you are contributing. When you step back – or rather within – you sense the creation of which you are part and to which you create. This is a difficult concept for you to appreciate. Accept that you are not puppets on a string pulled by a great puppeteer, rather you are co-creators
For you to catch a glimpse of the vision I have for you, pause for your tea break – as if you were a weaver in the mountains of Central Asia, step back or better yet reach a higher elevation to see the interconnectedness unfolding in the tapestry of your life to those around you and afar. And as I said above, that stepping back is actually the step within where all is made clear to you, even now.
Spend a moment this day on the word prosper. I have plans to prosper you. While you might be more familiar with the noun prosperity, consider the empowerment, the blessing, the selection that the verb prosper conveys. Don’t look [...]
