Tag: Prayer

Now is the time for love.

Yesterday I started to walk toward the ebb tide. An ebb tide is the slack moment before the tides turn. I walk down everyday to Porpous Channel in Stony Brook, NY. The channel is a narrow spot where the water races into Smithtown Harbor and Stony Brook Creek from the Long Island Sound. The water is usually racing, very fast with lost of brown foam and beds of reeds going in or out, always running. Sometimes the water is very high where it meets your feet a the pier or very low and you can see the clammers collecting a haul with the seagulls on the sandbar.

The ebb tide, nothing was coming in, nothing was going out. I noticed it because of the geometric patterns that were bouncing around on the top of the water. It seemed like the energy of the water had nowhere to go and was freely bouncing off the pier and the island on the opposite side of the channel. The patterns were beautiful and unfamiliar to me, as was the slack tide. I stood, took and picture and watched. I was reminded of a line from the song Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, “Mirror in the sky what is love?” When I stood still in the moment and reflected on the energy of the ebb tide. I then saw some bits of foam come from my peripheral right vision to slowly usher the geometric patters into the harbor, the tide had started to come in gently, quitely, like it does every twelve hours. I am witnessing the peaceful tides turning.

March 12, 2020 will be the day everything seemed to change, we all felt it. The tide of the conorna virus had hit our shores in an undeniable way. I was filled with worry, disappointment lack of concentration and an all consuming anxiety for my children, my extended family… the world. I started to feel physically sick and thoughts began to spiral. I’m not usually prone to experiencing so much fear. Then I cooked dinner, I meditated, I wached a good movie, I meditated again. I woke-up in a differnt mood and with inspiration to write. Here’s what I’m thinking…..

The world is experiencing World War III. It is a war on love and compassion and the enemy is fear, the vehicle is the corona virus and it’s captivated the world. A tiny virus has stopped the world, literaly stopped everyone from moving like no army or wall could!

People are going to be sick. But I have a suggestion for the vast majority who sit at home. While the healthcare workers are taking care of those in the hospital, we all have work to do as well. We will work to ignite in peace, hope and love. Don’t look for answers from others. Don’t look for saviours in our government or churches. Those institutions are not our saviours, nor our demons. They are our earthly mirrors. They know just as much as you do about this virus, which is almost nothing. I am asking you to look inside for your own answers, “What other choice do you have?”

The ebb tide, a time where our energy has nowhere else to go, but within. We can use this time to, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). To find the beautiful pure love the resides in all of us, that part of God that resides within.

“…you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, “protective” clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the “right” people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. All these things are your replacement for the Love of God.” – A Course in Miracles.

In the weeks to come, we can choose to experience love while we hunker down in our homes with our family and quietly erradicate this disease by our collective thoughts of love. God gave us all free will, I believe we can use that now to freely choose love, to seek love and think love every chance we get in the next two weeks. I would suggest praying, meditating, playing music, watching inspirational movies, create art, cook, bake, read, relax and share only good news on social media instead of fear. Know you are God’s perfect creation and gift to the world . You don’t have to do anyting but keep your thoughts on love and we can destroy fear on earth while we wait for a new tide to come in. “Perfect love drives out fear” (John 4:18)

I’ve been saying the Lord’s Prayer my entire life. Recently, I’ve been curios about one line in particular. “Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

I believe heaven is filled with love and joy, nothing else. The kingdom of heaven (love and joy) is on earth, now, today.. because that’s God’s will. The kingdom is claimed when we indivdually ackowledge and experience God’s love and joy. Let heaven be our mirror. The resserection is Christ coming to live again, this time, it comes from within each indivdiual. We were born with the ability to change the world as Christ did, now is the time for the world to resserecte. Now is the time for love.

You are going to be O.K.

-Eileen

Millenarianism

Instead of pushing against Trump, I am trying, really trying to like him… but love him as myself? Boy, that is hard. At the very least, I am looking for reasons why this man, with such lack of moral character, was given so much power. I took to researching philosophies as a way to educating myself. A Google search for “isms” has shed a new light on things – one ism you may not have heard of gradualism – belief that things proceed by degrees. I kind of liked the idea of degrees of progress, baby steps more love, less hate. Which lead me to an idea; things will turn around once I accept this president for what disturbing ideas he has caused to bring to the surface and accept them as my reality. In that vain, I can choose to think differently about the Trump presidency.

There were times in American history when we fought among ourselves in order to elevate to a more perfect Union. When the norms and accepted practices were challenged based on morals and individual basic rights, equalitarianism – belief that humans ought to be equal in rights and privileges. This makes our country so unique in the world from which it was created in 1776. In creating America, our founding fathers were staking their lives on creating a healthy republic, they were practicing republicism – belief that a republic is the best form of government. This was long before there were party affiliations which started in 1787.

The American revolution, the civil war , the suffragist movement the civil rights movement, were all horrible societal disturbances that occurred in order for change to take place on a national scale, that is what is called liberalism – doctrine of social change and tolerance. Millions of Americans fought and died in order to make lasting changes to our democracy, others fought against these changes, as our country continued to develop. There comes a time when we need a course correction. There is no easy way to go about this change. Some people fight against change with anger and violence because they see their way of life being up-ended, they see change as the death of their identity. We have all recently witnessed all the bad isms; absolutism, absurdism, academicism, egoism, ignorantism and nihilism – denial of reality or extreme skepticism take place. A strict adherence to conservatism – belief in maintaining political and social traditions. Which isn’t the first time these things have happened, hence the ism that was created to describe those philosophies.

I have come to see the current political unrest and attachment to staunch positions of either side of the isle as a necessary course correction of our democracy. Through this difficulty time, we hold a candle to the leaders of our country and evaluate their moral compass, the laws they pass and ultimately, how we want to live as a people. We the people, have the power to makes changes where we see the need as our democracy demands of us at the voting booth. In this current climate, we are given the opportunity to experience the gross underbelly of sexism – a belief in systematic inequalities between the sexes, racism – belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities. We witness hate and ignorance through Twitter on a daily basis. Something that has always been there, felt by many, but not by the majority of people. Now as the majority of people are able to witness, we as a nation are challenged to transform our republic once again this November. Bonism – the doctrine that the world is good but not perfect, to give each American the time to grow past old ideologies that no longer serve us. Because I truly believe that a majority of Americans believe in nomism – view of moral conduct consists in observance of laws and optimism – belief that we live in the best of all possible worlds.

What a better way to grow then to identify the philosophical emotions in ourselves first before projecting onto someone else the frustration and disappointment we see in our society. I cannot strike out with violence (either physically or emotionally) towards a group of people without having felt that same violence within myself first. I don’t need to change someone else, I only need to change myself. That is not to say, that we shouldn’t have discussions or rally for a particular political candidate, pass laws or compromise. Do those things for the love of the country. If you have a hard time loving Trump, love the country more than the presidency. If you love Trump, love the country more. That is called patriotism – the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country.

Have faith my friends, don’t let fear tell you our republic is done; finalism – belief that the end has or can be reached. Instead believe in millenarianism – belief that an ideal society will be produced in the near future. All things change and transform, a transformation of American is happening and you are the witness. If Trump was the one who brought some nasty things to the surface, I can believe he came to this place of power for a reason, and I am grateful for that (still struggling with the love). If we learn our lesson, we can make it a one term lesson. You have until November, 2020 to transform yourself.

Praying for tutiorism this November – belief that one should take the safer moral course.

You are going to be O.K.

-Eileen