Creature Comforts

I don’t consider myself a pet person.  I don’t particularly enjoy cuddling with furry creatures, and most of the time I feel like I barely have the wherewithal to sufficiently care for myself and the other humans in my charge, let alone members of various other species.   But I do have two cats, and every once in a while, one of them teaches me a valuable lesson.  Like yesterday, for instance - by some miracle, I found myself at home alone, as all three of my children and my husband had accepted last-minute social invitations and were out of the house for a couple hours.  In my normal Type-A fashion, I took this to be the perfect opportunity to complete every ounce of the housework I hadn’t gotten to earlier in the day.  So I set about doing chores, but I quickly became tired – it had been a long, long day - and eventually I decided, reluctantly, to sit down and rest with a cup of tea and an episode of one of my favorite television programs.  I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the first time I had sat down to rest all week.  

No sooner had I settled on the sofa and laid a blanket over my legs than Macy, the older of my two cats, came crawling up onto the sofa and plopped herself down on my lap. Macy is a gorgeous, striped brown and black Bengal cat with beautiful green eyes and a whole host of neuroses – one of which is that she doesn’t like to be touched.  Usually any time we reach out to stroke Macy’s fur, she recoils and slinks quickly away.  She spends most of her time hiding in our basement or in the darkness of our linen closet.  So for her to feel comfortable enough to approach me, first, and then to sit on my lap is significant.  After a few minutes of allowing her to get settled, I slowly reached out to pet Macy’s head.  At first she winced, but then she allowed me to stroke her head and then she allowed me to scratch behind her ears and to pet her back.  She closed her eyes, and I could tell from her stillness and from the weight of her body on my legs that she was finally relaxed - and so was I.  

I felt like Macy was giving me a gift in that moment.  I had finally allowed myself to be still and the result was a beautiful, peaceful exchange of energy that left me feeling spiritually nourished and completely at ease.  I wondered to myself, what other blessings would come to me if I would just allow myself to be still?  

~REBECCA

Putting it into Practice

I just finished volunteering on the Friends of the Hunterdon County Library Used Book Sale - Their 20th, my 14th. It was a terrific opportunity to use my spiritual principles. I read the Daily Word every morning before I went to volunteer and they were great. Yet when I started to journal about my experiences, when things got tense, somehow many of my principles went out the window. I realized that I had been triangulating (talking to one person about another), complaining and criticizing.

It wasn't all bad. I like to encourage other volunteers and tried to be upbeat and positive - especially when we were still wondering if we would get all the books sorted - there were many thousands of books donated to the sale.

Nevertheless, I have something to work on. The best thing for me to do when I notice I've let down on my principles is figure out how I can do better next time or, in this case, next year. I carry a box - Jean's box, each day to the volunteer site. I keep pens, scratch paper, a box cutter, phone numbers I might need, a painter apron, a calculator and a bunch of other things in that box. It's my traveling supply center. I decided that I need to put something in that box - taped to the top perhaps - that will remind me, from the first day, to use my spiritual principles.

I haven't decided yet what that will be - a photocopy of the five Unity Principles perhaps, a copy of the Four Agreements perhaps. I haven't decided yet. But ... I will put something there now when I'm thinking about it so that when I open my supply center box next April, the first thing I see will be that reminder of how I want to show up each and every day.

I love our Unity principles and especially the fifth or action principle: Through thoughts, words and actions we live the Truth we know. And that is what I intend to do out in the world.

~ JEAN

Inner Peace

Yesterday's Daily Word was Inner Peace. How timely!

Yesterday afternoon I called my mom who lives in Illinois to chat. The first thing she told me was that she had some excitement in her life that morning: she discovered that some of her jewelry was missing - the "good" stuff. A diamond ring from one of my grandmothers, a couple pairs of earrings she had bought in memory of my dad after he passed, among other things.

So her morning was spent talking to the building and grounds manager of the Retirement Community where she lives in a town house. She also had police to her place to make a report.

We talked about how someone got in and who it might be. All of that conversation was purely speculation since there was no evidence of a break-in - the police looked for fingerprints and didn't find any. We didn't spend much time on that. I've learned from Byron Katie (do you really know that's true?) that speculation is fruitless and accusing anyone is unfair.

My concern was if the locks needed to be changed? Does the community management have a good policy on protecting the resident's keys from being taken and duplicated? It's a bit frustrating to live so far away when something like this happens.

Toward the end of our conversation, however, I told her about the day's Daily Word and we ended up laughing about the timeliness of that word. Here are some excerpts from the meditation:

Being at peace means I have the resources to handle whatever arises in my life. 

I am peaceful and free.

I'm happy to report that, as I write, she is fine this morning and having coffee with my sister. All of us are in good (God's) hands. I choose peace and I am so grateful for the resources I have learned from Unity teachings.

~ JEAN

Blown Away

Yesterday I almost couldn't swallow - my throat was closed. Why? From fear.

The latest thing for baby Stanley is that his parents had to take him back to the hospital for a feeding tube because he still isn't gaining weight. My mind began having fearful conversations about whether our family's latest baby will ever get better. I know that thinking like this is counterproductive.

So what counteracts fear? Love, of course. But my fear had blown away my ability to think clearly. I turned to my great co-worker Rebecca yesterday, Do you have any words for me about this? She thought for a bit and then said two words to me: Golden Key.

Yes! I love Emmet Fox's Golden Key ... and I find it so helpful for my peace of mind. So I stopped dwelling on the situation of Stanley's health and began to concentrate on God (Love). And any time my mind went back to fear, I re-concentrated on God. I can now swallow again.

My fear did give me one insight: I figured out that I want to visit Stanley and his parents (my nephew and niece-in-law), who live in Brooklyn, sooner rather than later. I want to hold him in my arms and kiss his sweet face and be strong for him and his parents, to see him whole and complete exactly as he is. I think I can go next week on Wednesday ...

By the way, I want to refer everyone here to Unity's new website www.unityspiritualcenter.org. There is a great article about how Unity folks pray.

Thank you for your prayers for Stanley. (P.S. I wish for everyone a great friend who can help you re-group when your ability to think clearly has blown away.)

~ JEAN

Healing

Today's Daily Word is Healing. The affirmation is:

Divine life renews every cell of my body.

And one line from the meditation says: I envision divine life renewing every cell of every person.

In particular I see my grand-nephew as complete and whole - divine life is renewing every cell of his little not-yet-two-months-old body.

Our family is celebrating Stanley's coming through successful surgery on his little body plus, after that, having two successful surgeries to remove cataracts from each of his eyes. This photo brings joy to my heart. It is my sister with her first grandchild and he looks as joyful at her as she is looking at him. Thank you, God.

~ JEAN

Divinely Focused

Tuesday, March 22's Daily Word couldn't have been more appropriate. At 7:30 a.m. that day, my grandnephew, Stanley Joseph, who is barely two months old, was being operated on because he has a disorder called biliary atresia.

This condition needs to be found and corrected before the baby is three months old or it might irreparably damage his liver. I don't fully understand the disorder; I just know that if I don't pay attention, I could fall into fear and panic. Instead I turn within - knowing my only resource is God and my spiritual practices.

The first thing I did when I found out last week that Stanley had a problem was to email my niece-in-law our Prayer for Protection. Fear and panic - yes, that was very possible for me and for my whole family. We all had to wait for the test results over the weekend - ugh! The condition was confirmed on Monday and surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning.

This is a perfect situation to Golden Key. Which brings me to the Daily Word for Tuesday which was "Divinely Focused." Part of the meditation reads:

In my daily prayers, I always give thanks to God for blessing and healing and guiding my loved ones. I envision each and every one enfolded in Gods' loving embrace, knowing and affirming for them that they are perfect expressions of God's light and life. As I affirm and pray, I remain divinely focused, allowing God's love to move in me and through me to bless others. 

I let go of outside distractions and center my thoughts on God... I am calm and at peace and open to God's loving presence. In this presence I know the peace that surpasses all understanding.

I found this so helpful that morning. It is not unusual that the Daily Word is exactly what I need and want to hear that day.

~ JEAN

Post-vacation Blues

I always have post-vacation blues. I wish I didn't but I do. I wait them out and they go away while I'm doing my regular "re-entry" stuff. The charms of my regular life re-surface and I'm back to feeling content with my regular life activities.

This vacation to Florida is no exception, though I'm feeling the blues a bit stronger right now.

I'm delighted to be back with my doggies - walking them every morning and afternoon is a great pleasure - I missed them a lot. While I was walking my dogs this morning, my internal voice was harsh, hateful, nasty and negative. I came back into the house upset and went right to my journal. "What's going on?" I wrote. "I don't want to do this or that anymore. I don't like this person or that one any more. I want to run away from this situation, and that one. What am I going to do?"

I'm so grateful that spirit often comes to me through my pen. And it did this time too. Here's what I wrote:

"I know what I don't want. But I don't know what I do want. That is my challenge; until I know, I will take it one moment at a time, one day at a time. I will Golden Key this situation." And so I am turning my mood over to God and doing my regular stuff. Those internal conversations continue but I pay less attention to them because I know God's in charge and I am fine.

I'm so grateful for all the spiritual principles I've learned. I don't have to experience the blues and have no resources for handling them. All is well.

P.S. Spring is coming; the crocus are blooming in my yard.

~ JEAN