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8/7/2014 When writing loves you back Next month marks 3 years since the start of this Blog. It has been quite a journey! Looking back over early posts, I came across one, written two months after I began writing regularly. It marks 30 days of blogging and posting every day. I still can't believe I did that. I think I kept that pace up for about a year. Some of you have been with me since the beginning. Others are coming later to the game. While my writing voice has continued to develop and the messaging has become more focused, the spirit of the blog - captured in this post - is still very much the same. So for "Throwback Thursday", I am bringing this post up to today's date (and polishing it up a bit) for your reading pleasure. Last Friday marked thirty consecutive days of blog posts. Now, for most bloggers, that would be considered - ho hum - normal. But for me? My best writing streak ever was in 1998. I wrote seven consecutive articles over a two or three day period. Afterward, I put my pen down and relaxed, writing one or two things a year, because I considered such abundant writing an exceptional phenomenon. But when I recently realized how many hungry little fishes surface in the internet pond every single day looking for inspiring, hopeful content to help them on their daily swim, I was impelled to jump into the deep end of blogging despite my personal doubts. I love to write. I love to explore an idea from many angles and to tell a memorable story. (I am full of stories!) I especially love to share the good news of what God is and does. Anything that helps others to feel the power and love of God that is right there in their midst is a thrill to me. But the commitment to blog - to think deeply and share new content consistently every day - well, I wasn't sure I could keep up.  Then I read this tip from a fellow blogger, Brian Wood: "Quality is better than quantity, but quantities of quality wins." I think his words speak to the unlimited potential to be inspired and to share quality ideas. I believe that everyone has infinite quantities of love in their hearts. As Christ Jesus said, "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things..." (Matthew 12:35) Every blog post is a love letter. Love for God, love for the message, love for the stories and love for the reader - it all comes together in each post. Its funny though, in the midst of all that love, I forgot that I, too, would be on the receiving end! People have asked how I can blog everyday and get everything else done. The fact is that, since I started blogging - which is a time and attention commitment - my activities have become streamlined and the time-wasters have disappeared. It is like daily life has yielded all its little hidden moments over to the writing, and other tasks now unfold without a hitch. Mary Baker Eddy explained this phenomenon in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. "Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way." (p. 326) Example: I am involved in emptying and selling our family home. I have a short window to accomplish it. I am also working full-time and keeping up with the blog. There has been a lot to coordinate, and yet there hasn't been a second of delay in getting things done. Painters, carpenters, electricians and plumbers have all come, and completed their work well, within a day of my request. Not one has kept me waiting or scheduled things for weeks later. Another example: Last week I went to the French Consulate in New York to notarize some legal papers. Nothing I have done with the Consulate has ever taken less than a week and at least two trips to the city. It was done in 15 minutes. I attribute this flow of good in my daily tasks to the commitment to writing with love - and about what I love - daily. Eddy once said in one of her poems that God, divine Love "makes radiant room midst the glories of one endless day." (Poems, p.75) I love to blog for you. And the blog is loving me right back! This post was originally published on this blog on November 21, 2011. Not a subscriber and want to be?
It's easy! Just sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS  Love. Love when it's easy. Love when it's hard. Love yourself. Love others. In fact, love everyone, all the time, like sun shines and rain falls. Think this is an over simplification? Try it and watch what happens. Sourced in God, your love isn’t personal, but it is powerful. Let your prayers lead you to deeper discoveries of what it means to be the image and likeness of the divine Love that is God. Let Love show you what you are, how extraordinary you are as God’s own ray of love-light. Real love is pure and strong and healthy. You ARE made perfect in love just like your Father-Love. You are built to express love just like your Mother-Love. Why not start there in prayer? The alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of you is love. It is your divine right to see it. You must see it. You can see it. Love.
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Please subscribe in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTINGS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT 4/1/2014 The real deal on love Real love is indestructible. The greatest injustices perpetrated against one haven’t the power to alter the innate capacity to love. Love is a spiritual faculty, deep and constant. As the image and likeness of God, we each reflect the divine Love that is God. There is no avoiding Love. There is no stopping love. Love loves, so we love. Love is power. Love heals. It’s a fact that hate can’t persist in the presence of the pure goodness and unselfed love of divine Love. Discerning the true spiritual nature of man as the image and likeness of Love, we witness Love’s power, we experience dominion over evil. Real love is practical. It isn’t wishy-washy, colorless, or flat. It isn’t lukewarm. Love is a spiritual force, active, resilient, prompt to respond. Love is tender and firm. Divine Love is our Mother. She nourishes, clothes, shelters and protects us. Love is our Shepherd searching tirelessly, finding us when we are lost. Love is our Father. He has graven us on the palms of His hands – that tender spot where we are safe and secure. We live uncrushable lives in Love. In a short essay titled "Love", Christian Science discoverer Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love...  Here are a few earlier posts from this blog that bring out aspects of the love of Love.
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It's easy! Just sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS 3/26/2013 Unbroken Friendship In the Bible, a proverb counsels, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.” (Proverbs 18:24) This I love to do. I love all my friends. I love to support, care, and show them they are special to me. I have always had good friends – not just friends, but best friends - those who don’t cling; who are secure in the knowledge that they are loved even if long periods of time pass between contact; those who live their lives and let me live mine; those who come and go over the years, leaving a sweet trail of encouragement, support and kindness in their wake. With all this rich friendship in my life, I hadn’t given much thought to what it would be like to be friendless. But when a close friend “broke up” with me, I felt isolated and alone. It wasn’t that I didn’t have other friends. I was simply confused as to why I couldn’t have that one in my life. I had had breakups before, but none that rocked me like this one. For several months after, I avoided even thinking about my friend, not wanting to hear in my mind those stomach-socking words, “I don’t want to have any more contact with you.” Although her reasons made no sense to me, I respected her directness. I had to let her go. And I learned a few lessons about friendship along the way.  Mary Baker Eddy asked in her textbook on Christian Science, “Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” Further on, she wrote, “Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.266) My lessons on friendship came from prayer about Love, from prayer centered on getting to know the universal Love that is God as my best and ever Friend. The first chapter of Science and Health, titled Prayer, emphasizes God’s nature as Love – not simply as having a loving aspect, but as Love, divine Love itself – the impartial, always available Love that never puts conditions on His expression of love - “I’ll love you this much if…” Or, “I’ll be your Friend when…” Love loves like the sun shines. No one is left out of the Love-light. Divine Love is not conditional or arbitrary. It is universal, unlimited and freely given. Love can do nothing but express love to everyone, everywhere. Love is all, and we all live in God’s love. Divine Love never quits, never changes, never stops. God is the everpresent Friend that never abandons His creation. As I got to know God as my Friend, I saw that I could trust this Friend to never drop me. In this enormous sense of Love’s friendship, I saw God as my constant Companion and my most faithful Friend.
 Love loves. Love’s friendship blesses in all circumstances no matter what. No one is left out. Nothing is left behind. Our divine Friend is always present no matter where we may find ourselves. Our connection to this Friend, our security in the divine friendship, is not dependent on another person. Knowing God to be Friend helped me lift up my expectations in my human friendships to look for, in myself and in those around me, the permanence, fidelity and other spiritual qualities inherent in God’s creation as His image and likeness. In her autobiography, Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, “There are no greater miracles known to earth than perfection and an unbroken friendship. We love our friends, but ofttimes we lose them in proportion to our affection.“ (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 80) Jesus called Judas “friend” even after knowing that he betrayed him. Jesus knew his true and perfect Friend to be God, and could only see God’s likeness in those he loved. Jesus always loved Judas. While Judas' behavior may have separated him from Jesus, it was a onesided break-up. Even betrayal couldn’t separate Jesus from his friend.  In the case of my friend, I had gone quiet for a period before the break up, slipping away during a tumultuous period of my life. My intention was to protect her from worrying about me, but it was misunderstood and seen as neglect. I am deeply sorry about that misunderstanding, but I would not have handled it differently. I did what I did out of love for my friend, to the best of my understanding at that time. And I cherish the lessons I have since learned about friendship. I now know that it can only be broken if I allow it to be. And I don’t. I will always love her as my friend. No child of God can truly unfriend another. Friendship is an expression of Life as much as an expression of Love. It is not optional. If it should occur that we disconnect and go our separate ways, we are all still linked eternally in life and love by divine Love. And only in love. Not in pain, dishonesty, hate, sadness or fear. I think a line from Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 30 sums up perfectly what a spiritual perspective can bring to our friendships: “But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end.” My anguish over that relationship stopped as I realized that nothing has the power to deprive me of true friendship, a divine attribute that God expresses constantly in my life. Since no one can be Godless, no one can be friendless. Now when I think of that friend, instead of pain and loss, I feel love. And loved. We are both loved, moving forward and progressing in Love. No one is left out or put out of Love's circle of friends. No one.
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you can have new posts delivered to your email inbox. Simply subscribe in the sidebar. And if this post is meaningful to you, it may also help others. Please share! You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS 10/24/2012 How do I love me? A blog reader (and patient) who will remain anonymous has been encouraging me to write a post on the importance of loving oneself. A couple of days ago, she wrote me an email explaining how important this concept has been to her in recent days. I asked if she was willing for her thoughts to be shared on the blog. Her reply? "Of course." So here you go! From an email dated Saturday, October 20, 2012: The injunction "Love thy neighbor as thyself" has been popping into my mind for the last few days, and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I think most of us would find it not too hard - at least in most cases—to maybe not love, but at least like our neighbor. But us? Love ourselves? Even like ourselves? No way!  Once I asked a dear friend if she loved herself and she looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t even know what that means.” And she was love itself, a church-goer, generous to a fault, devoting all her time to helping others. How could she not know what that meant? I think lots of people would throw up their hands in horror if asked the same question. Yet all through the Bible, the subject is God’s great love for us. So I was asking myself, what's wrong? In the Bible there is a lot of talk about self-abnegation, self-sacrifice, and selfless love. Also, original sin. And to me, it’s this notion that we are basically sinners and worthless, therefore unworthy of love, that seems to have gotten the upper hand. So the idea of loving oneself has become twisted into being irrelevant or into seeming like an ego trip of self-absorption or self-indulgence, to be rejected entirely by anyone seeking salvation. And then appears the natural extension of this neglecting to love oneself - self-hatred. I think we have the wrong idea of love and of Love. And it is a better understanding of Love, of God as an unchanging Principle, teaching us to love even ourselves, that makes Christian Science revolutionary.  In Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Art thou unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self. Know thyself!” Over these past several days when you have been working for me, I have begun to understand that knowing myself has to do with loving myself. That is, to know myself, and love my real self, I must see myself as Love sees me. And “love is patent, love is kind.” So a healing has come. I can see that because God says I am loved and loveable, it’s being said and done and can’t be contradicted. I can yield, accept. Understanding this has overturned all the bad I’d been told about myself ever since I was little. And the baseless anger that had been eating at me for several months has just dissolved. I have become more patient and kind. I have totally quit bashing myself for anything and everything. And I have decided to love no matter what. Me. Others. Often expressed in just a smile, or even merely a pleasant expression. And in return I’ve had such blessings. Love it? Please share it!
For a full-text version delivered to your email inbox, you can find the subscription box in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT  Passion. Whether it is for a special person, a valued project or a life goal – who doesn’t adore that feeling of heightened purpose and breathless, eager anticipation that we call passion? I am not talking about a mere physical reaction or emotional bond. Passion, in its spiritual sense, is the fire of inspiration and pure love for its subject. Many go to great lengths to find something to be truly passionate about. When they do, they hope to sustain the feeling as long as possible. But when the initial fire dies down into embers, does this mean that the love and inspiration is coming to an end? Is there something we can do to fan the flame and rekindle the ardor of inspired commitment to that something or someone we love? In a long relationship between individuals, in a career or with organizations, duty or responsibilty can tend to take the place of joy and spontaneity; and inspired thinking and acting can suffocate under the daily grind. In this case, what we may have once fiercely loved can tend to become a trial of patience and a test of endurance. The Bible offers some insight into what happens when fresh thought fades into habitual patterns of thinking and acting. The apostle John delivered a message from the Revelator - from Jesus Christ - to a church in Ephesus, Greece that had fallen victim to daily routine. He warned: “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and thou hast… borne and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” (Revelation 2:2-4)  The way I see it, the Revelator commends the fact that they are hanging in there and plugging along. But what happened to the passion of their first love, the fervor for their purpose in laboring, working together? Kindly, John doesn’t leave them to flounder under this diagnosis. He also delivers some sage advice. He says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” (Revelation 2:5) Here, passion is linked to vision, a spiritual vision involving inspiration. When we recapture the inspiration that initiated or spurred on a good idea or relationship, we have reconnected with the flame – the first love that restores joy and purpose. When actions spring from renewed vision, they act like a fan drawing on a spark until the full blaze is restored. Find inspiration and you find a reason for being. Express the inspiration by doing the “first works” - approaching the relationship with a virgin attitude ("Fresh; new; unused; as virgin soil" - Webster's 1828 Revised Unabridged Dictionary) and the fire tends to spread to those around you. During the first decade of marriage, my husband and I fell comfortably and naturally into the routine of work and family responsibilities. We had a sweet, loving relationship with mostly ups and very few downs. However, as steady and generally smooth as things were, we were still two people evolving at our own pace, with interests and activities that sometimes converged and often diverged. To a certain extent, we had let our relationship become a bit dusty. Nearing our tenth anniversary, I was longing to rediscover the fire of purpose in the relationship.  This wasn’t something I felt I could discuss with my husband. I didn’t know if he was feeling as out of sorts as I was. I certainly didn’t want to hurt him or frighten him by exposing my thoughts too soon. So before I brought anything to his attention, I decided to pray about my marriage – and to pray for my marriage. I had always felt our relationship was a gift from God, so it seemed perfectly normal to take my questions up in prayer. Ours was a marriage formed in prayer. I had been praying daily to see the qualities of God expressed in a life-companion. When I met my husband, I recognized his divine qualities right away. After the marriage and over time, regular, consistent prayer for the marriage dropped off and was replaced by the general day-to-day business of the family. And the vision? The inspiration? The fire and passion? That, too, had slowly faded out as the relationship was more and more deprived of that element of prayer so essential to its formation. So the Revalator's advice to that Ephesus church was on the mark for me. I rediscovered my “first love” through doing the “first works” – practicing again the consistent prayer that had brought us together in the beginning. One of my issues with the marriage concerned the subject of spirituality. This was clearly a big part of my life. For him? Not so much. I was the church goer, he worked on Sundays. I was spiritually hungry - a genuine seeker. He seemed to have no spiritual curiosity whatsoever. So I asked God in prayer, “After ten years together, are we really on completely different life paths? Is there anything that we can do to bring these two different tracks together?”  As I did some spiritual study on the subject of marriage, I came across a statement that provoked me to wake-up. It is in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures – a book that really brings the Bible’s message to life. On page 90, she writes, “The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” I had been thinking that if only my husband would change, or admit to himself that he was spiritual, we could rediscover our bond. Now I realized it didn’t depend on him at all. He wasn’t the one thinking he wasn’t very spiritual. That was my issue. I saw that if I admitted to myself that my husband was God’s own likeness, this would set us both free to master the infinite possibilities of our marriage. I took up daily prayer to watch for, and be a witness to, my husband’s spirituality, and I began to notice so many of his spiritual qualities. Marriage, to me, became a full-on commitment to witnessing to the best in each another. My sense of marriage was reborn. I discovered that the passion I had been seeking was present in direct proportion to my prayers and spiritual witnessing. Our life together was once again full of joy and inspiration. I never said a word to him about this prayer and spiritual renewal, because my struggles on the subject were between me and God. But he noted that the marriage was better than ever, and he was right. Prayer isn’t just last minute emergency life-support. Prayer can be a permanent life-link to a passionate expression of Life, God. If you are looking for more passion in your life, for renewal of commitment, and fresh joy in your familly, your work, your church, I highly recommend a regimen of prayer that opens you to see more of the divine expressed in and around you. The admission to yourself that you and those in your midst are God’s own likeness, can set you free to live a truly inspired life – aflame with divine Love. This post first appeared on this blog under the title "Aflame with Divine Love" on November 2, 2011. It has been revised and new links have been added. If you find this post interesting or helpful, please share it!
Also, it is quite easy to subscribe to the blog if you would enjoy receiving updates. Simply put your email address in the box provided in the righthand column and click "Subscribe me!" You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT Permission to post this stunning photo comes with the requirement to link back to the source, Bryant McGill on WhoSay. I am deeply grateful to Mr. McGill for making this thought-provoking photo available for sharing! - Michelle Nanouche, CSB
6/18/2012 I will love, if another hates "I will love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to overcome all error." (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, 104) These immortal words of Mary Baker Eddy rang through to my thought yesterday as I heard a powerful story recounted by Ulrike Prinz, CS, of Hamburg, Germany, in her lecture entitled "A Christian Science Response to Hate and Violence." I was very moved by what I heard, and I am grateful to have found the source of the story on the internet. At the bottom of this post, you will find hyperlinks to the original book and biographical info on the co-authors.  George Ritchie, PhD "When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the 123rd Evac entered Germany with the occupying troops. I was part of a group assigned to a concentration camp near Wuppertal, charged with getting medical help to the newly liberated prisoners, many of them Jews from Holland, France, and eastern Europe. This was the most shattering experience I had yet had; I had been exposed many times by then to sudden death and injury, but to see the effects of slow starvation, to walk through those barracks where thousands of men had died a little bit at a time over a period of years, was a new kind of horror. For many it was an irreversible process: we lost scores each day in spite of all the medicine and food we could rush to them. "Now I needed my new insight indeed. When the ugliness became too great to handle I did what I had learned to do. I went from one end to the other of that barbed wire enclosure looking into men's faces until I saw looking back at me the face of Christ. "And that's how I came to know Wild Bill Cody. That wasn't his real name. His real name was seven unpronounceable syllables in Polish, but he had long drooping handlebar mustaches like pictures of the old western hero, so the American soldiers called him Wild Bill. He was one of the inmates of the concentration camp, but obviously he hadn't been there long: his posture was erect, his eyes bright, his energy indefatigable. Since he was fluent in English, French, German and Russian, as well as Polish, he became a kind of unofficial camp translator.  "We came to him with all sorts of problems; the paper work alone was staggering in attempting to relocate people whose families, even whole hometowns, might have disappeared. But though Wild Bill worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day, he showed no signs of weariness. While the rest of us were drooping with fatigue, he seemed to gain strength. "We have time for this old fellow," he'd say."He's been waiting to see us all day." His compassion for his fellow-prisoners glowed on his face, and it was to this glow that I came when my own spirits were low. "So I was astonished to learn when Wild Bill's own papers came before us one day, that he had been in Wuppertal since 1939! For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration. "Perhaps even more amazing, every group in the camp looked to him as a friend. He was the one to whom quarrels between inmates were brought for arbitration. Only after I'd been at Wuppertal a number of weeks did I realize what a rarity this was in a compound where the different nationalities of prisoners hated each other almost as much as they did the Germans.  As for the Germans, feelings against them ran so high that in some of the camps liberated earlier, former prisoners had seized guns, run into the nearest village and simply shot the first Germans they saw. Part of our instructions were to prevent this kind of thing and again Wild Bill was our greatest asset, reasoning with the different groups, counseling forgiveness. "It's not easy for some of them to forgive," I commented to him one day as we sat over mugs of tea in the proceeding center. "So many of them have lost members of their families." "Wild Bill leaned back on the upright chair and sipped at his drink. "We lived in the Jewish section of Warsaw," he began slowly, the first words I had heard him speak about himself. 'My wife, our two daughters, and our three little boys. When the Germans reached our street they lined everyone against a wall and opened up with machine guns. I begged to be allowed to die with my family, but because I spoke German they put me in a work group." "He paused, perhaps seeing again his wife and children. 'I had to decide right then,' he continued, 'whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people's minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with.'" (An excerpt from the book "Return from Tomorrow" by George G. Ritchie with Elizabeth Sherrill, published by Fleming H. Revell, A division of Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI., pgs. 113-116) Thank you, Ulrike Prinz, for bringing this story out for your audience in Paris. Love it? Please share it. Let's work together to share the love.
Your shares reach and bless many, many others. If you aren't yet a subscriber, a full-text version of the blog can be delivered to your email inbox. It's easy to sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT 6/11/2012 Life without age or decay A year or so after my first husband passed on, I caught a glimpse of a white head and wrinkly face on the living room mantle. I took a closer look at the last photo taken of him. I had no recollection of him like that. He had been 34 years older than me; and yet, even after fifteen years of marriage, I had never noticed the age difference. In my eyes, he never acted or looked older. I showed my daughter the photo and asked if she remembered her dad as aging. She didn't, either. A “Portrait of Dorian Gray” moment? I don’t think so. My husband just didn’t see himself as an aging mortal. He didn’t live his life that way. So, we didn’t see him that way either. I can only remember him as strong and handsome, vibrant and active. The photo may have captured the world’s belief about age, but he never looked like that. Some months after the photo incident, I read an account of a woman whose child had drowned at about eighteen months. Seven or so years later, the mother still deeply grieved. Praying to have the heaviness lifted off her heart one afternoon, the mom fell asleep and dreamed. She saw a young woman, beautiful, who looked to be in her late twenties. The woman said to her, "I am happy, don't be sad." When she awakened, the grief was gone.  Had she seen her daughter in the dream? According to a mortal timeline, the child would have only been 8 or 9. But it occurred to the mom that she had seen her daughter – but not as a mortal or a ghost. She glimpsed the eternal idea of God, reflected by her daughter – beautiful, healthy and alive. She realized that while she, the mom, had believed her daughter had passed through mortal stages of infancy and toddlerhood, and that then her life had been brutally interrupted; that, in fact, she had only and always existed at her highest and best, as the mature and magnificent reflection of the divine, unending Life who is God. The Psalmist said of God, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life.” (16:10,11) Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun." (246) If manhood (including womanhood) is the eternal noon of virtue and truth, and if this is the “path of divine Life” that God makes known to us, could it be that babyhood, adolescence and old age are simply mortal, limited views of a spiritual being that only ever exists at its highest and most beautiful?  A year or so after my husband passed on, I also dreamed of him one night. In the dream, he was preparing to work on the roof. In a brief conversation we said how much we loved each other. Then he climbed the ladder and disappeared. In this dream he looked exactly as I always saw him – active, healthy, brimming with purpose. I didn’t see an age or stage. In fact, he seemed ageless. Pulling these pieces together in thinking about true being, I have a whole new sense of existence at “eternal noon”. God’s man is not, and never has been, an immature mental, emotional or physical being. We are neither underdeveloped (babies), overdeveloped (aged), nor under a state of development (uncomfortable, agitated adolescents). God’s creation exists right now at its highest and best. That is how God, as Mind, creates and reveals each one of us, His perfect ideas. We are neither dimmed by decline nor needing to grow brighter to reach our noon. We are always the brightest and best. Each one of us! And this day is about recognizing some yet undiscovered (but very present) aspect of our brilliance – true spiritual being at its eternal noon - and simply letting it shine.  Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:5-11, NIV) If you like what you see in this blog, please share the link with your friends, fans and followers!
A full-text version of the blog can be delivered to your email inbox. Please subscribe in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT  “LOVE. What a word! I am in awe of it.” So wrote Mary Baker Eddy in her book, Miscellaneous Writings. (249) She went on to exclaim: “Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! The un-derived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love.” (ibid. 250) As a human quality, love is lovely and can be deeply felt and movingly effective in harmonizing our daily round. We can fall in love, be enthralled at a baby’s smile, and be touched at the kindness of a stranger. But, the Love that is God - the underived and infinite - is power untold. It is grand, noble, magnificent, unassailable, without an opposite. Love is the eternal Almighty.  Love doesn’t need someone or something to bring it forth. It is not dependent on another person or a place or a special event. Love loves as the sun shines. It is what it is. It is kind, compassionate, impartial, gentle, and mighty. I’ll never forget when I first felt the mightiness of Love many years ago. I was sitting on the edge of my bed thinking about my son when he was a toddler. Suddenly, I felt a tangible push! I was in awe. I knew it was love. I felt the push of a Love greater than the human love of a mother for her child. It was, unmistakably, God, Mother-Love, the source of my mother-love. From the moment of that push on, I have known that there is not a single moment when I, or anyone else, is separated from the Love that is God. On the road one day to visit a friend, I noticed a car following me. At first, I didn’t pay too much attention, but when I made a turn towards my friend’s house, I saw that the car was still behind me. I wondered if that person was going to visit my friend, too! When I stopped, the car behind me stopped, also. A lady I had never seen before hopped out and rushed towards me. She obviously had something to say. I rolled down the car window and she started screaming. She was furious. She let me know in no uncertain terms that the first turn I made was illegal. I didn’t think so, but I told her I was sorry. She kept shouting.  At first, I felt like dropping to the floor of the car in a puddle. Then, I began to think of the power and presence of Love - the Love that was right where road rage seemed to be. As I prayed, I thought of how Love is All, encompassing all, the totality of being. No one was excluded from love. She suddenly stopped, as if someone had turned off a faucet. There was silence. We looked at each other. Then she turned and walked slowly back to her car. I went into my friend’s house, inspired by the power of Love. Love is our real nature. Love, God is substance – the only real substance, in fact. Man - a generic term including us all as God makes us - is the image, or reflection of flawless, perfect Love. Love, God establishes and maintains everyone’s real identity. Love creates us to be balanced and clear, and a simple protest on the side of divine Love, in prayer, is enough to bring out this spiritual fact in ourselves and others. Love, God, is so powerful, that evil or hatred cannot stand in its presence. The mortal thoughts and behaviors that would try to make us feel separate from God – like anger, revenge, impatience, irritation, rage - melt at Love’s touch. No one owns love. It isn’t personal. No one has more of it than any other one. Love’s expression is what we are – all of us. Knowing this can relieve one of the struggles associated with a personal, limited or obstructed sense of love. A beautiful Psalm says, “The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted… Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (46) Love is exalted in the earth. Right where you are, where I am, the mighty love of divine Love is perfectly reflected. Kay Olson is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. She can be reached at kayolson@mindspring.com.
3/7/2012 Breaking out of the comfort zone
 Why do you want to pray today? Have you asked yourself? What is it that is motivating you today to talk with God? It is not an insignificant question. It's also not a trick question. In order to find your prayer MOJO - that is, in order to feel confidence and real connection in your prayers - an honest examination of where you are coming from can make a difference. If you don't know where you are, how will you ever get to where you want or need to go? Honesty in prayer and candidness about our motives can make the difference between merely staying on the surface of prayer and having a real conversation with God that engages the heart. So, pause. Ask yourself, "Why do I want to pray today?" (Go ahead. Do it before reading on. I'll wait.)
 I was pretty new to the study of Christian Science I had come to it out of a deep desire to understand God, but now I was faced with a need for healing.
My baby daughter was ill. She was feverish and stuffy. It was challenging for her to drink from her bottle. I cradled her in my arms until she was sleepy. Then, I put her in her crib and sat beside her in my rocking chair. Now what? The only things I could think of were the bottom-line spiritual facts that had brought me to this teaching: “God is All in all.” And, “God is Love.” I pondered these two all-encompassing ideas. 1/26/2012 Safe haven in any storm "The Bible is filled with beautiful imagery of the protective power of divine Love in emergencies. Perhaps one of the best-known is the 91st Psalm, which says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty... He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust." (Psalm 91:1-4)
One spring after a harsh winter we experienced a rapid thaw. The creek behind out house overflowed its banks and the backyard flooded. Our home began to fill with several inches of water. In the backyard sat a little hen house that housed our three pet chickens. One of the hens had been sitting on two eggs for several weeks and her chicks were about ready to hatch. Concerned, I made my way across the yard to check on them. Although their house had a foot and a half of water in it, the chickens were safe in their roost. One egg had hatched and the chick was tucked safely under his mother's wing. The second egg had a tiny hole in it. Read the rest of this post in the Christian Science Journal online. 1/23/2012 A love note Love is in my heart and on my mind today – love for those who love me, and even more for those who don’t, because they need it most.
Mary Baker Eddy once counseled, “We should measure our love for God by our love for man; and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience to God, — fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all; imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.” (Miscellaneous Writings, p.12) Paul sent tender greetings to the church at Philippi, when he wrote, “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.” (Philippians 1:3 New Living Translation)  I had just walked into the kitchen with an armful of groceries when I noticed my husband hanging up the telephone. He looked serious. I put the groceries on the table and he turned to me with these words: “Your brother died. He had a heart attack.”
I sat down at the kitchen table and kept thinking, “I don’t believe this.” Then, came a quiet thought: “Don’t believe it”. I thought: “This can’t be true.” Another gentle message came: “You’re right. It isn’t true.” I stayed with these thoughts for some time. I took them deep into my heart. I lived with them during the next few days as my family and I made arrangements for my brother’s funeral. 12/17/2011 And Christmas comes once more A study of Phillips Brooks' famous hymn "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" uncovers a little secret. In the original manuscript of the carol there was a fourth verse rarely used in hymn books. Doctrinal elements in the original verse led to some criticism, prompting Brooks to remove it from the carol altogether. However, the fourth verse was published in The English Hymnal (1906), Songs of Praise (1925), and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), and elements of it continue to appear to this day in The Christian Science Hymnal, where parts of the original second and fourth stanzas are joined to form one verse.
12/12/2011 Christmas and new beginnings For me, Christmas, more than New Year's, is all about a fresh start. Any move in a new direction begins with a thought open and receptive to changing, to responding, to growing. When thought shifts, lives tend to follow. And the Christmas season gives us so much opportunity to shift away from fear and limitation and the mundane sameness of everyday and to reflect on the Christ.
As one considers the living presence of the power of God, Good, mental doors can open to His divine light, His multi-colored, many-faceted opportunities, and His healing influence. A Christmas of new views can lead to a New Year of sparkle - of unfolding good. Christmas 2003 had been a quiet one. I had been widowed a few years and was settled in a new home. Our daughter was now an adult. My life had become simplified and settled, and I felt that room was being made for something new but I wasn't sure what it would be. I was feeling hesitant and a little afraid. So, during December, I had begun to study Jesus' life - reading the gospels and acquainting myself more with his healing mission - to open myself to the power of Christ in my own life. 11/19/2011 Behold! - A guest blog on a spiritual approach to time management by Diane Marrapodi, CSB If someone were to ask me, “What one word in the Bible is particularly special to you?" I would have to say, "Behold!”
I took special note of that word on the Monday of what was lining up to be a crazy busy week. Reading that week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson I noticed the word “behold” appeared many times. I couldn’t miss it. I couldn’t ignore it either. It caught my attention to the point that I was impelled to stop and consider its meaning in relation to the tasks at hand. 11/17/2011 Safe in any neighborhood A Christian Science visiting nurse responded to a call for help late at night in what would be considered a high-risk neighborhood. She was nervous and afraid, so she began to pray. Her prayer helped her to understand that she always worked and moved in God, Mind - the divine Principle, Love - and thus was always safe. She saw that she was in what Christ Jesus called "the kingdom of God."
After the home visit, she returned to her car and found a large man sitting on the hood. She could approach the car without fear, because she understood that if she was in the kingdom of Love, than anyone she saw was in the kingdom, too. He explained, "I knew that a car like that would not be here at this time of night unless the owner was doing good. I sat on your car to protect it." 11/11/2011 Love drives out fear Jerry Seinfeld got a big laugh when he joked about a survey that found that the fear of public speaking ranks higher in most people's minds than the fear of death. "In other words," he deadpanned, "at a funeral, the average person would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy."
According to surveys, fear of public speaking ranks among Americans' top dreads, surpassing fear of illness, fear of flying, fear of terrorism, and often the fear of death itself. All I know is when I was first appointed to an international lecture board, I was absolutely paralyzed with fear. I, who ALWAYS have something to say, was struck dumb - and I had writer's block to boot. 11/10/2011 What is that pulling on me? A woman was taking a class and felt a strong attraction to her teacher. She was married, he was married - clearly the pull was inappropriate. Or was it?
Sensual thoughts were interfering with her attention in class. So on the second day she decided to confront the problem head on and told the teacher about it. He kindly responded by explaining that she could only be attracted to his integrity. She wasn't drawn to him, he explained. It was the good he expressed that she naturally wanted in her life. His explanation that goodness alone was an influence or pull on her changed her interpretation of the feelings. It helped her see that desiring good wasn't wrong, but that she could only be satisfied by going to the Source of good. It also changed her physical response. The uncomfortable desire and electric heat stopped immediately. Her thoughts toward the teacher normalized and the classroom experience continued without further disturbance. 11/2/2011 Aflame with divine Love Passion. Whether it is for a special person, a valued project or a life goal – who doesn’t adore that feeling of heightened purpose and breathless, eager anticipation that we call passion? I am not talking about a mere physical reaction or emotional bond. Passion, in its spiritual sense, is the fire of inspiration and pure love for its subject. Many go to great lengths to capture true passion. When they find it, they hope to sustain it as long as possible. But when the initial fire of one's passion seems to fade into embers, does this mean that the love and inspiration is coming to an end? Is there something we can do to fan the flame and rekindle the ardor of inspired commitment to that special something or someone we love?
The Bible offers some insight into what happens in long relationships or steady unchanging career paths when habitual patterns of thinking and acting sometimes take over. Duty replaces joyful activity, spontaneous acts of attention begin to suffocate under the daily grind, and what we once fiercely loved can become a trial of our patience and an endurance test. 10/27/2011 Letting love move you on, gracefully Who hasn't experienced major direction shifts in life? Most of my moves have been voluntary. Occasionally they have occurred under the stress of circumstances not of my choosing. But as for my move to France, I happily arrived six and a half years ago. Now, however, I am going back to the US because the time has finally come for me to empty out and prepare to sell my former home. Everything in it will have to go. It is time to move on.
As I prepare for this next adventure, I am happy to find a colleague's blog on the subject of "moving on". Marta Greenwood writes, "I was doing some house clearing and wondered how many other things cluttered my life—things I no longer needed and could get rid of, even though many of them revived happy memories and ideas, and would stay in thought as a blessing. There was just so much stuff! I realized as I got rid of most of these things that they were making me move on to live life in the ever-present now. For me, the lesson was such a deep one: 'Release them and move on. You will remain in a place so rich with God’s love that you cannot possibly miss the items you’ve given away...' 10/22/2011 Even Woody Allen Godwords. That is what a colleague, Kim Korinek, was talking about on her blog a few days ago. She said, "Just about everyday, I list a handful of defining words about God. For a time, understanding God didn't really appeal to me. I didn't see the connection with the great I AM to my daily life - of having friends, enough money to cover rent and other necessities, and of school and work. But slowly, I came to realize that it is our concept of God that gives us the parameters of our world view - that our world is as big as our God..." I have a similar practice. Each morning when I wake up, before my feet touch the ground I give myself a few moments to pray. This first prayer of the day is totally God-centered and allows me to consider God's infinite nature in some fresh, inspired way. I ask God to give me a word, a name, a "Godword" to help me take my understanding of God deeper and farther than before...
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I have practiced Christian Science professionally in some form since 1979. But my journey with Christian Science started in a Sunday school where as a young child I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics of Jesus' method of scientific Christian healing. A significant experience at the age of twelve opened my eyes to the great potential of this practice. After impaling my foot on a nail, I prayed the way I had learned in Sunday school. Within moments the pain stopped and healing began. By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely. Having experienced the great potential of Christian Science, there would be no turning back. |
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© 2011-2023 Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB. All rights reserved. Pages updated 2 December, 2022.