Thursday, October 29, 2009

Prayer


Here is a topic I've had trouble with since my Sunday School days as a child. This is from the writings of Myrtle Fillmore, although it reads like something out of 'The Secret' or some other new spiritual thinking.


"Sometimes we pray to a God outside of ourselves. [but]

"It is the God in the midst of us that frees and heals. With our eye of faith we must see God in our flesh, see that wholeness for which we are praying in every part of the body temple. 'Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you? ... glorify God therefore in your body.'

"... We commune with God-Mind within our own consciousness. Prayer is an exercise to change our own thought habits and our living habits, that we may set up a new and better activity, in accord with the divine law rather than with the suggestions we have received from various sources. We do not prove that we expect our prayers to be answered by going on doing the things we have been doing.

"Prayer, then, is to change mind and heart so that God's omnipresent good may fill our mind and heart and manifest in our life. If we do not keep on thinking in accord with the prayers we have made, we do not get good results. For all thought is formative; all thought has its effect in our life. When some of our thought energy is expended in negative beliefs and feelings, and we show that we have old mental habits in the subconscious mind, we get those old negative results - even when we are praying daily and when others are praying for us."

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

From my current reading


"In Cold Pursuit" (a mystery set in Antarctica) by Sarah Andrews who, by the way, is a professional geologist and a licensed pilot.


This quote from pg. 291 is a woman scientist that the main character meets out on the ice while investigating two unusual deaths:

"There is no such thing as race. All research done in the past half century has said the same thing: We are all one race with only minor variations, but the mixing is spread all across the globe, the result of constant intermarriage, not just this tribe splitting off from that .

[Perhaps] you've heard about mitochondrial Eve? Each woman on this planet, including you and me, carries the same genetic coding in our mitochondria, with only minor, minor variations that have built up over the millenia. In a manner of speaking, we are all daughters of one ancient mother. We all carry her heritage. We are sisters."

Monday, October 19, 2009

Myrtle Fillmore


Birth: Aug. 6, 1845 Pagetown, Morrow County, Ohio, USA
Death: Oct. 6, 1931, USA
Co-founder of the Unity School of Christianity. She was born Mary Caroline Page. She suffered from chronically poor health. She married Charles Fillmore, and together, they discovered a set of principles regarding healing and prosperity. Through the application of these spiritual principles, Myrtle was miraculously cured. The Fillmores founded the Unity School of Christianity, an organization now more commonly known as Unity. In addition to the many Unity churches worldwide, Unity also operates an internationally acclaimed prayer network known as Silent Unity. Myrtle Fillmore passed away in 1931 at the age of 86.
Here's a synopsis of some of Mama Fillmore's thoughts on Healing
Life is a form of energy and has to be guided and directed by intelligence.
Teach your body by talking to each part, telling it to be full of vigor and energy, full of sweet, pure, wholesome energy of God.
For example, "My legs are active and strong!"
"My eyes are young, clear, bright eyes because the light of God shines through them."
"My heart has the pure love of Jesus Christ flowing in and out with each beat; a joyous pulsation."
Keep on, silent or aloud, declaring the words of truth: My body is free and unlimited Spirit. My organs are centers of life and energy.
And I am watchful of what I say and think.
I think and speak only kind, loving, true words.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Do your life stages stay with you or not?


Egg

caterpillar


Cocoon

Butterfly



My daughter, Sharon, found this question intriguing:
When the Butterfly emerges does the caterpillar cease to exist?

With some thought my answer is: the caterpillar spins a cocoon that gives way to, or becomes, a chrysalis which after the correct amount of time, bursts its tight bound prison to become the butterfly. If you think that you are all of your stages, the child, the young person, and the young adult who grew day by day into the person you are now, then the butterfly is caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly all at the same time, simply in one form or another; but if you believe that you have left the child behind and are only what you are right now, then the butterfly may also have replaced the caterpillar, and the chrysalis who have ceased to exist.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

To See The Past


The Isle of Iona in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland is a place where the past and present are not so separate as they seem in other places. The site of a sixth century monastery that was founded here by Saint Columbus, who arrived on the Isle in 563 AD, it seems to be the focus for glimpses of the past.

One incident from the 1960s relates that the artist, John MacMillan saw Vikings attack the ancient abbey as if in the present. He describes that he was walking downhill toward the sea and thought of calling on friends whose cottage was on his way, but looking ahead along the hill, he realized the land was empty. Neither his friends' nor their neighbor's cottage was where they should be.

Disoriented he thought to look out to sea for his bearings. There he saw Viking long ships setting anchor in the bay. He watched as they came ashore, attacked the abbey, set it on fire, plundered the cattle, loading them on board, up-anchored and sailed away. This historical incident is recorded as having taken place in the tenth century, but John MacMillan had seen it in the twentieth as though it were happening in the present.


Apparently, the abbey has a strong presence of the past about it, for a decade later, Tommy Frankland reported another incident. A group of scholars, young and old, were meeting in the library of the Bishop's House. Tommy Frankland and some of the others noticed an elderly clergyman standing by an open window that looks out towards the Sound of Iona. The gentleman stood absolutely still, his whole being focused on the quiet bay.

A little later, Tommy saw the same gentleman outside, walking purposefully toward the ebbing sea. Then without hesitation, he walked straight into the water.

He was waist deep before Tommy reached the shore. "Come back, Reverend! Come back. It's dangerous!"

Finally, the gentleman turned. He seemed only then to realize that he was in the water. Slowly and with some difficulty, he made his way back to shore.

The Reverend told them that he had seen the Columba Abbey from the library window as it must have looked a thousand years ago. He came down to the shore to get a better look and seeing a causeway that led to it he decided to walk out on it.

Though the abbey finished it's restoration in 1967 the causeway is no longer there, so when he heard Tommy calling as if from a distance, the vision left him and he found himself wading in the sea.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Dream Haunting


Years before Sir Harold Boulton ever heard of Ballachulish House, his mother would speak of a beautifully situated estate that she often thought and dreamed about. So familiar was this dream house that she could describe any part of it in detail.

Sir Boulton was invited to the Ballachulish House one year when his mother, now elderly, was visiting him and he asked to have her invited along as well.

As they approached the grand house, she realised that this was the house, quite literally, of her dreams. She surprised the owner, Lady Beresford, by telling her about a staircase that had long ago been bricked up and was out of sight or knowledge of the current owners.

In her own turn, Lady Beresford surprised the woman by telling her that she recognized Mrs. Boulton as the little lady ghost who had been haunting Ballachulish House for years.


Story taken from information in Gazetteer of Scottish & Irish Ghosts by Peter Underwood, published 1972

Friday, October 9, 2009

Another of my fables: To Keep Them Warm



Once upon a time, a loving wife and mother, Annie McVee, died of a sudden illness, leaving two children; Harold and Eleanor, aged five and seven. They had only their hard-working father, Alex McVee, to look after them. The children helped with chores but their father had much work to do on the farm. He worked from dawn to dusk. He and the children missed their wife and mother, Annie, very much.

One Alex McVee's friends in the village was Tommy. He had an older sister, Jane, who never married. When this sister was quite young, she had lost an eye. Several red-hot embers from her family's fireplace flew out and hit her face when her little brother Tommy had carelessly tossed a log on the fire she was sitting next to. Their mother's comment at the time had been, "Thank goodness the ember didn't strike the boy." Jane's missing eye had disfigured her face and made her bitter, although she was known as a hard worker in the village.

Encouraged by his friend, the father married the sister with one eye (Jane) so that the children would have a mother and the meals and the house would be taken care of.

As a new stepmother, Jane treated the children meanly, perhaps because her own mother had treated her meanly. "Children cannot be pampered, if they are to grow up responsible," was a favorite expression of hers. She had learned it verbatim from her mother, of course.

The stepmother also resented the first wife's precious things. For example, one of the children's mother's treasures had been a large supply of blankets and linens. As new wife, Jane stored these blankets away in her hope chest under lock and key.

The nights got colder as Summer turned to Autumn. The one-eyed mean stepmother refused to bring out the warm blankets for the children's bed. All they had on their bed was a few worn out rags. When winter settled in, they huddled together shivering with the cold, until they fell asleep.

But each morning of this first week of winter, when the children woke up, they found themselves wrapped cozy and warm in their mother's blankets. Their stepmother was livid. She screamed at them and smacked them up side their heads in frustration. But she knew in her heart that the only key to the chest, where the blankets were locked, was safely hidden under her own pillow. She, of course, had a very warm blanket on her bed.

Then one cold winter's night young Harold fell asleep quickly but Eleanor could not. She was so cold, bitter cold, and she lay awake shivering, deep into the night.

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened, and Eleanor saw a lady dressed in a long shimmering white dress. As the ghostly lady approached, the lock on the chest sprang open and she brought out two blankets and wrapped the children in them.

The lady leaned down to kiss the children and as she did Eleanor recognized her mother.

Eleanor whispered, "Mother?" but the lady in white turned away and vanished into the darkness.

When Eleanor told her family what she had seen, the stepmother relented and allowed the children to have warm blankets on their bed.

They didn't exactly live happily ever after, because no one does, but the children were on better terms with their stepmother for those short years that children live at home with their parents.


Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Dan Brown's Lost Symbol introduces Noetics to me


I've just finished reading Dan's latest blockbuster: The Lost Symbol.

Fabulous, my friends. A gotta read!
The book sold one million copies the first day, or so the e-zine ishift said in their article they sent me on my gmail.

The book's setting is in the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building.

When Langdon's mentor, Peter Solomon—a Mason —is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is plunged into the world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations.

Add Peter's beautiful sister Katherine who has a secret lab in the Capital Building catacombs where she is studying Noetics.

The heroic duo, Robert Landon and Katherine Solomon, finally take out the mad, bad guy, after, of course, enduring pain and torture. What is left in this popular fiction blockbuster is amazing and delightful; a new science called Noetics.

As I understand it Noetics is the scientific study of human consciousness that proves that enlightenment is not a personal matter but an evolutionary potential that has the power to change our world from the inside out. And I say, None too soon.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Today is drifting away


The first day of a new month, and one of my favorites at that: October. First things first, of course; coffee and toast. Quick visit with my daughter Sharon who lives down the street, then get dressed, comb flyaway hair.
Now John and I head out for the Senior Center to get our vouchers for seven free lunches. Petey the Chihuahua comes along for the ride and a walk in Vista Park afterwards.

These lunches are redeemable at the Copper Queen Hospital Cafeteria. Now that might not sound like a place to get great food, but it is. Chef Evan, knows how to prepare good food. The cafeteria part makes it hard sometimes to keep the food fresh but we go as close to opening as possible: 11:30AM.

A typical menu for the week includes things like Chile Relleno Casserole, Carrot Ginger Soup, Apple Pork Chops, Spaghetti Squash, JoJo Potatoes, and Wild Rice Pilaf. The lunch includes, soup or salad, choice between two main courses, beverage, and dessert. Free. Sponsored by the Arizona Council on Aging.

So that was the day's beginning. Back home by 10AM. Didn't go to the cafeteria since it's Thursday: hamburger day, so I made a brunch of pancakes, sausage and a fried egg. I got the mail and decided to get on the computer and check my email since the cat, ole Koochareeno, wasn't using my chair. Like Sharon's cat, Turtle, the computer chair is their favorite place to nap, so we have to catch our time when we can.
It is now 3:30PM and what I want to know is - Where the f__k did the time go?