Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Beyond Fear


This morning I grabbed a little notebook out of my desk drawer so I could make a list, and I found this written on the top page:
    Look behind the fear and you'll find a dream.

I must have seen this before--and thought it before--because it's in my handwriting. But this morning it hit me with all the import of a major epiphany.

Look behind the fear and you'll find a dream.

I tried this out with some of the fears I'm struggling with right now. My work has been shifting--a couple of big projects are finishing up and I'm not completely sure what's coming. What's the fear? Financial instability. What's the dream? Financial freedom--the freedom to create from a sense of complete, secure joy.

That's a pretty good dream, I thought.

Another fear that's jangling around in the back of my head and using up energy is that I won't be able to really get Starlight Books off the ground. What's the dream? A thriving, family-based children's publishing company that specializes in top-quality books that that promote tender love and care of the earth and all beings in it. We will bless and be blessed by everyone who works with us and create the kind of books that become family favorites through the generations.

That's a really good dream, I thought.

Take a look at one of your fears today. What is the dream that is behind it? Safety, love and companionship, radiant health, financial freedom? The dream is where you want to put your energy, so once you see that dream, hold on to it and affirm it. And know that I'm out here, doing it too.

And where two or three are gathered, you know... :)

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

For Every Mother's Heart


For every mother's heart, dear God, bring peace and certainty of Your care,
In every father's hands, O Lord, place a healing vision and the will to see it through,
In every child's spirit, precious Father, preserve the innocent expectation of joy
and the knowing beyond knowing
that You are here
that You meet us tenderly in our broken places
that You are the source of all Good
and that as your children,
that Good is ours to claim.
Amen.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

One-Word Prayers


Last week I wrote about finding an article tucked away in my great-grandmother's book that offered a series of readings for whatever might be troubling you. I ordered Henry Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World and read it last weekend. It's really wonderful. Clear. Loving. Uplifting.

Always true to my student nature , I took notes and made lists and worked with all the ideas. But a sweet little inspiration keeps swirling around my head. And it's that instead of intellectualizing everything (which I am prone to do), to breathe the life of the offering in and exhale it out. So here's a list of simple, beautiful, elegant, life-packed one-word prayers, inspired by Henry's book. Choose the one you need today, and breathe it in whenever you need it--in traffic, in the checkout line, when the neighbor's dog won't stop barking, when you're out of sorts. Breathe it in and really feel it, and then let yourself exhale, feeling your connection with All That Is. :)

  • Patience.

  • Kindness.

  • Generosity.

  • Humility.

  • Courtesy.

  • Unselfishness.

  • Guilelessness.

  • Sincerity.


    Amen.
  • Wednesday, April 04, 2007

    Ageless Wisdom


    Just a few minutes ago I was looking for something in a box on the top of my office shelf, and I found an unexpected blessing: books of my great-grandmother's, from the early 1900s. Tucked inside a frayed and tattered 1908 copy of Mary Baker-Eddy's Science & Health, I found this article clipping:

      "Business Woman" Has a Cure for Every Ill
      To The Star: If you have the blues, read the twenty-seventh Psalm.
      If your pocketbook is empty, read the thirty-seventh Psalm.
      If people seem unkind, read the fifteenth chapter of John.
      If you are discouraged about your work, read the one hundred twenty-sixth Psalm.
      If you are all out of sorts, read the twelfth chapter of Hebrews.
      If you cannot have your own way in everything, keep silent and read the third chapter of James.
      If you are losing confidence in men, read the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Sir Henry Drummond's "The Greatest Thing in the World" was taken from this chapter, and if "Experience" will read this little book in connection with her Bible I am sure it will change her whole life as it did mine. She will find it a heart mender.

      --BUSINESS WOMAN

    Thanks, Grandma Roos. You listened to your heart and clipped this out 90+ years ago, and it blessed me (and us) today. :) k