Reminder Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, March 26, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Something More
Time: March 26, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
“When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart give it up.” Prophet Muhammad
During March, I have been focusing on joy at the core of the spiritual life. But again, not as something we can fabricate--not a pretense. Rather, joy is a discovery. Admittedly, it is difficult to get past meanings, translations and definitions that vary in different languages and cultures; but whatever we name it, this aspect of life takes us beyond drudgery, suffering, burdens and sadness, to a lightness and affection for Creation--a smile and great gratitude for daily life.
This Wednesday, the Holy month of Ramadan begins for Muslims. It is a time to strengthen and deepen the connection to Allah, through spiritual practices and prayers. including a daily fast from sunrise to sundown. The month of Ramadan ends (sundown, April 21, 2023) with Eid-al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast, that commemorates the cornerstone of Islam: Allah's revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. Because the religious calendar is based on the moon, rather than solar cycle, the month of Ramadan varies each year. This year it overlaps with the Christian season of Lent, which began in February but continues for 6 and a half weeks, ending at sundown on April 6, 2023. This is the 40 day season of prayer, fasting, abstinence and giving that is the preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the cornerstone of Christianity.
I am reminding you that there are quite likely well over a billion people, who are in a deeply spiritual (as well as cultural) process this month, focused on moving beyond the self. Even if we are independent spirits who do not identify with formal religion, we can honor their practice and open our minds and hearts to the Great Good that guides their way.
One further thought: how does the practice of fasting and other forms of self-denial as spiritual practice, relate to Joy? On a physical level, fasting is a reset for the body. That reset undoubtedly impacts us emotionally and mentally. This is not the intensity of a hunger strike; this is a movement that can restore balance between the things that please and nourish us in the outer world, and that which sustains us in our inner life. And through such practice we can begin to understand the Prophet Muhammad's words above. We discover we really can give up things which as individuals, "disturb the peace" of our hearts and block our Joy. (Susan Nettleton)
For thoughts on what might block your Joy, follow the links:
https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/3/24/fasting-from-worry
https://hillsidesource.com/daily.../2018/6/17/surrender
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, March 26, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Something More
Time: March 26, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
“Why should I wish to see God better than this day?... I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Someone recently wrote me that they were trying to "stand the pain to get to the grace". While I have found it true that Life provides compensation in times of injury, hardship, and loss, our emotions and our thinking often fail to recognize compensation for the balm that it is. Belief systems which tell us that we must suffer in order to know Grace (unearned Divine aid and spiritual gifts), miss the point: We cannot earn Grace, by suffering nor by good works. There's no measuring system for a formula that prescribes pain, including spiritual pain, to reach Grace. How much pain? How excruciating, and for how long does one need to suffer? Both pain and grace are words--concepts--molded and linked together by humanity's various experiences and need for understanding, expression and comfort, turned into formula's, and passed down to generations. Do they really fit the 21st century? What happens if we disconnect our personal suffering from having any spiritual value? Perhaps that would free us to be more effective in managing and dissolving the causes of suffering.
While it often appears that the desperation of personal suffering pushes us to search for another way of life, some other force or power, to be free from suffering, does this search really bring Grace? Does it somehow prove to God that we are worthy or serious about our spiritual life? Or has Grace been there all along? This Life itself is Grace: this Life, with struggles and hardships and times of loss; this same life with wonders, delights, joy, and compensation--All Grace. What happens if we decidedly turn our attention to the delightful, take time to marvel the beauty, savor the satisfactions that come, note happy events, embrace compensations that rebalance life, allow the smile, all the laugh...all of which add up to joy? It can't/won't be every moment, but we can choose more joy. We choose joy when we pay attention and appreciate the good that weaves through our everyday life, especially when it seems obscured by gray skies or dark thoughts, or heavy hearts. Letters from God are still flowing--not just letters--but Love letters, awaiting your warm response. (Susan Nettleton)
For more, follow the links: https://onbeing.org/poetry/small-basket-of-happiness/
March is a transitional month. Depending where on the globe you live, March is the opening to spring or fall. I am reminded of this as I've watch this particular day begin with dark clouds (and a rather gloomy weather forecast), then partial sun and now blue sky. Our month begins in winter and ends in the glory of spring; the shift is a process over time. It's interesting to speculate whether our human awareness, our conscious recognition of that cycle, plays some part in that process. Certainly the cycles impact our choices, expectations, even our moods, and of course, our cultures as well. We now know collective human behavior also impacts environment and climate, and our behavior is the expression of our values, expectations and beliefs, as we collectively travel on this earth home around our orbit path, around our sun.
Today I am encouraging you to find/define you focal point in that cycle. My grandchildren love dancing and especially spinning in all sorts of styles, so I've taught them the technique of spotting. Spotting is simply finding a fixed point to focus on in front of you, for your eyes to lock onto, and return to immediately in a spin to prevent disorientation and dizziness. What point do we return to again and again, through the cycles of the seasons, through the cycles of a life? And most importantly, does it include joy?
After the weariness of this lingering Pandemic and the upheaval that it wrought, it seems to me important to spotlight Joy as a spiritual principle. Joy is not, though, to be manufactured, or faked. As the I Ching puts it, "True joy must spring from within." And as Roger Housen wrote in his introduction to his edited collection of poetry "Dancing with Joy" (2007): "Conventional wisdom tells us that nobody goes to heaven for having a good time"...[yet] "Joy is an up welling of life, of spirit, a blossoming of freedom. It is what we are here for." Can we let go of seasons past, and find a Joyful focal spot within? Whatever your focus today, let there be a spark of Joy. (Susan Nettleton)
For more about Joy, follow the links: https://www.best-poems.net/mary_oliver/mindful.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse... (pay particular attention to the last line)
Today, while looking at gray skies in this weekend of storms (no one really out on the streets--people have stayed inside, awaiting the next downpour), I am watching a tree, three stories high, sway gently in the wind. This scene turns my thoughts to how we too are swayed by another kind of force, the power of influence. Certainly empty streets bare the influence of weather reports, warnings, alerts and sirens. Yet, there always the few who simply go their own way, Influence--the power to effect change in opinion, behavior, and actions--can be complex for human beings. We are affected by and emulate opinions and actions of others, often unconsciously, but we also consciously seek advice and pay attention to the choices and actions others around us, directly and indirectly. And we in turn, influence others, with or without intention. This ability is one of the human traits that binds us together, reinforces community and in relationship, mutual support. But influence can also be a less desirable tendency that reinforces power and value systems that exclude and divide. If we are easily influenced, we can fail to develop our own uniqueness and the capacity to make decisions for our own well-being.
Influence has evolved to be a powerful tool in commercialism that parallels industrial development. Centuries ago, even early bartering systems, sales depended on word of mouth and local opinion. With the printing press, advertising could be shaped by language, as well as image, for broader appeal. Testimonials for a product added another dimension. The Age of Radio, followed by television honed the "commercial" as a new powerful tools for influence.
Following those came the reign of "infomercials", program length presentations to entertain or offer "information", but used as a form of influence for the sale of specific products, as the lines between information and advertising blurred. In the 21st century, we now have social media with professional (paid) 'Influencers', who further blur the distinction between opinion and fact, entertainment, personal connections and celebrity status. They are particularly powerful 'informers" for millennial and later generational followers. In a world that offers such a dazzling array of choices, it's easy to forget that these are paid, well-disguised marketers.
The point of this reflection is that we do rely on others in navigating the complexity of modern life. This is likely to become more so, rather than less, as the 21st century progresses, unless we abdicate our choices to computerized algorithms, rather than shared value systems in a sense of exchange within community. It's a good time to consider the 'influencers' in the course of your life and the influence you hold with others. Beyond community though, there is the pull of the inner, deeper Influence of your spirit, the imbedded wisdom and guidance that leads us, as we turn to It. The spiritual life is not a battle between the ways of the world and the ways of God. Rather, it is a growing into the understanding that God is right here, right now, in this world. Guidance comes through every possible form in this world, as we give way to a spiritual life.
(Susan Nettleton)
for more, follow the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse... (P.S., Robert Penn Warren wrote "All the King's Men".)
Even in our illusions, God speaks: https://allpoetry.com/Last-Night-As-I-Was-Sleeping
An overnight wind storm this past week awakened me with sounds of branches lashing windows and doors while yard debris whirled around outside. Nature calmed down that morning, but left me pondering turbulence. It seems a fit label for the times we are navigating. In the years when I was a frequent long distance flyer, I never really mastered turbulence, but I learned to distract myself by shifting attention with full concentration on some other activity--a word puzzle, a continuing ed article, or breath meditation. Some people seemed to enjoy the thrill of the roller coaster; others sought distraction in conversation. There was no point in anyone trying to converse with me; my focus was one-pointed, a sealed off absorption in concentration mode.
The discomfort of air turbulence is the awareness that you have no possibility of controlling it--the pilots can manage the plane, flight attendants can institute safety protocols, but as a passenger, you let go. Often that means controlling what you can control--your breath, your muscle tone, your attention. Flying then becomes a powerful spiritual exercise in both faith and surrender. You become fully you: a being capable of chosen, conscious activity, simultaneously participating in a larger realm, carried along with others across an expanse of space only partially seen and partially knowable or understood by you. Truly a capsule of Life!
Weather-wise, turbulence remains one of the most unpredictable of weather phenomena--a time of instability in the atmosphere with irregular atmospheric movement, especially up and down currents. The term has now expanded to include a broader sense of "atmosphere" of emotional agitation, confusion, social disturbance and chaos. In the cultural world of organizational and communication theory, turbulence has become a metaphor for new models of understanding and managing disruption in both institutions and relationships. These models draw on the aviation classification of 4 degrees of Turbulence: Light (little or no disruption), Moderate (widespread awareness), Severe (sense of crisis), and Extreme (structural damage--to the plane, or an institution, or a relationship). Quantifying a threat aids in putting it in realistic perspective, allowing the mind to respond more effectively. Unpredictable and controllable events fan human fear.
Yet, we are creative, adaptive and intelligent. Human aircraft design actually uses these same atmospheric pressure principles and up/down currents to lift and fly aircraft. Flight itself is, as professor Steven Gross writes, a "working with" the forces of turbulence rather than fighting, dominating, or cowering from them. This Sunday, consider the turbulence factors in your own life and your spiritual practice that allows you to pass through and soar. (Susan Nettleton)
"Turbulence is a constant element in our universe, maybe the prime element and it requires thought and practice enough so that we can hold it with balance and work with it as a constant part of being alive." Steven Jay Gross, Using Turbulence Theory as a Model in a Volatile World, Temple University. 2016. (slide presentation)
For poetic inspiration, follow the links.
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../AWaveofSea/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../YourBoatYour/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhereIwander/index.html
Tuesday is Valentines Day--a day with multiple layers of meaning in world culture. History shows the focus on Romantic love has roots in pagan rites, festivals and celebrations of a coming Spring. While the official establishment of "Valentine's Day" was 496 A.D, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 a Catholic feast day in honor of a martyred Saint Valentine. But the ancient story of St. Valentine is surrounded by the jumbled history of other saints who shared the name. This uncertain identity eventually led the Church to remove the day as an official feast day in 1969. By then of course, the holiday had spread beyond religious tradition to become a highly commercial, global celebration, and at least in American culture, expanded to become a day to express love in its many forms--friendship, family, support--although the core tradition is romance.
Beyond the bonds of all of these levels of affection, there is the experience of Divine Love. While modern advertising has cleverly pushed cultural expression of love through special meals, flowers, cards and gifts, underneath all this commercial show, still lays the human heart and the movement toward union and a shared life. Beyond that movement is the joy of life itself, the song of Creation, Divine Love--Cosmic Delight.
To just call that Song "love", in our limited human sense of love, is only a partial awareness. As my teacher, U.G., used to say, "love means two." To love in the human sense requires separation; it actually reinforces separation. With true union, there is no separate being to love, no separate lover. This is the paradox of this human internalized call to love. Zen sums up the way beyond: "Not one, Not two."
Whether you enjoy the festivity of Valentine's Day on Tuesday, or ignore it completely, let your heart stay open. If you feel left out, or resentful, or dismissive, try a little forgiveness. Today, this Sunday, offers a window into a larger field of Love and strangely, you, right now, are at the center.
(Susan Nettleton)
For the poetic expression of that larger field follow the links:
Marie Howe's poem: https://mbird.com/poetry/annunciation-by-marie-howe/
Larry Morris poem: https://hillsidesource.com/the-heart-of-things
"Life is a balance of holding on and letting go" Rumi
As I reflected on the unfolding new year in last weeks Zoom talk, I made the comment that not every year is a year of great change. Some years serve to stabilize our lives. To say that every year carries the same significant process of change is misleading. This may be a milestone year or not, it maybe a transition year, or time of completion or initiation. It maybe a solidifying year, where the changes we have been going through have a chance to solidify. A year of stability can be a gift. During these pandemic years, the use of social media and news for disguised advertising and competing social agendas has perhaps made us live with the assumption that life is continually being disrupted, with one crisis after another, in a way that makes it more difficult to accept stability as possible.
To positively and spiritually participate in everyday life within the world means discerning what our values and inner directive call us to maintain and nourish, and what we are pulled to change-- how we personally and individually are called to participate in life, with a mind that is open to possibilities and paths we have not yet seen. Two thoughts occur to me as tools in this discernment--the first is writer Portia Nelson's classic piece: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters (see link below). In essence, she is writing about our personal blind spots that get us into trouble in life and in one way or another cause us misery, until we grasp that the consequences of our mindset are simply too painful and self-defeating to continue down the same road, whether that road is our behavior, habitual choices, relationships, or ultimately our thinking. Time, repetition and self-reflection are keys that ultimately lead us to understand we can take a more life-enhancing track. Discovering our blindspots can be shocking and painful. Yet, once we grasp that well-practiced assumptions and habits may actually be self-undermining, we become more open to the second tool, a simple but powerful prayer: "Help me to see where my answers are wrong." This is the prayer that unlocks confusion and self-delusion.
Let the larger spiritual field enter today, already aim especially for that one spot or issue within you that is reaching, consciously or unconsciously, for a new direction...or a new connection. It is entirely possible that the new, paradoxically, is the very thing that ushers in stability. (Susan Nettleton)
for 'Autobiography in Five Short Chapters':
https://palousemindfulness.com/docs/autobio_5chapters.pdf
for a poetic view of unfolding awakening:
Today's post is a excerpt from this morning's Sunday Zoom Talk. (If you would like to be on the email list for future Zoom talks with Susan Nettleton, please email us through the contact page for hillsidesource. com or at hillsideew@aol.com.
I'm throwing out a challenge for the year: Actually BE in 2023. Whatever goals and direction you maybe sorting through now that January opens to February, hold them up against the challenge to Be in 2023. This year of 2023 is only partially defined and will not be completely defined until the year is over and beyond, as part of 1 year in 100 years of the 21st century. You may cleverly point out that this is just a way of saying be here now, be in the present, and that is true, but I am not talking about the moment to moment present, but rather a present that is in the context or frame that includes a past and a future.
We have mindsets, rehearsed over years, that keep us from being in 2023. One of the primary ones is the idea that "the best time of my life has come and gone". Has it? Nostalgia, or as my teacher U.G. used to say, "Nostalgia for the bad". The tendency of the human brain is to diminish unpleasant experiences over time and promote positive ones. That is healing. While continual dwelling on the painful events of the past is not useful, our brains' tendency to actually revise memories can have us remember events inaccurately, feeding the idea that life was better than it actually was. The problem occurs when we measure the time we're in now through this lens of how good things were. We all reminisce--it's human nature, it helps put life in some context of our story and shared stories, but sometimes we create a frozen mindset "that was the best time", and everything else from there is downhill. How can we possibly bear to be present now, when it will never be good enough?
Reflect on whether your dwelling on the past robs you of enjoyment or meaning now. If you are dissatisfied with being in 2023, time set yourself free. Life is different; you, people around you, your sense of place, all have changed. Life has become more complex--there are more people, more things and at least in many areas of life, more choices, although those who look back to simpler times might want to take away choices, not realizing the actual solution may lay in making peace with complexity. Greater changes likely lay ahead. Our years of Pandemic brought a collective awareness of global vulnerabilities, fragile populations and governments, along with the power of technology and the future wonders and dilemmas tech will continue to bring. If you assess life only through the news and social media, it easy to slide into despair and long for the past.
If your mind is made up, firm in the idea that your best years are behind you, and even the world's best years are past, you are in trouble; we are in trouble. Where is the incentive for positive participation and creativity? That hopeless rejection of 2023, will be mirrored back to you, before you even try. So I don't mean we can't indulge in a moment of nostalgia, or miss someone or something, but an embedded belief that everything is downhill--you, relationships, society, the beauty and wonder of life--cuts you off from truly living.. Being in 2023 requires courage and clarity. The negative mindset is the obstacle. You don't know what the future holds, why assume the worst? Life remains amazing. (Susan Nettleton)
follow the link for today's poem: https://poets.org/poem/house-called-tomorrow
This morning I raise the question, "What world view do you hold?" "How to you see and think about this world you live in, in this new year, 2023? Now, consider that in a time of mounting storm warnings in the East, more drama in Congress, and continued reports of violence, this week also brought an astounding announcement in the realm of astrophysics. The National Science Foundation's NOIRLab released the results of one of the largest surveys of our night sky in history, revealing the "Gargantuan Astronomical Data Tapestry of the Milky Way."
This translates to a two year process of filming the night sky with a dark-energy telescopic camera in a mountainous area in Chile. The first part of the project, released in 2017, revealed 2 billion objects--mainly stars, but the most recent filming was able to capture the stars and other contents in unprecedented detail. The 2 data sets combined reveal around 3.2 billion objects (again, mostly stars) in a view that covers 6.5% of the night sky in an area 13,000 times the angular area of a full moon. So we have pictures of 3.2 billion objects filling only 6.5 % of the night sky. Astounding. What might the other 95.3% hold? As Andrew Saydari, the lead researcher, put it: "Despite many hours of staring at images containing tens of thousands of stars, I am not sure my mind has wrapped around the magnitude of these numbers."
To remind you, the Milky Way is Earth's home, a spiral galaxy formed approximately 14 billion years ago with a diameter spanning 100,000 light-years. Our solar system is 26,000 light years from the center, All objects in the Galaxy revolve around the Galaxy's center. It takes 250 million years for our Sun (and the Earth with it) to make one trip around the Black Hole center of the Milky Way.
As a younger poet, Walt Whitman wrote "The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them." (Song of the Open Road,1855). But as he grew older, he had a profound experience that inspired a new vow:
"Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will measure myself by them. And now touch'd with the lives of other globes arrived as far long as those of the earth or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life." (Night on the Prairies, 1879.)
Perhaps today is ripe for a larger world view, that expands beyond the troubles of our times, and in expanding, gives room for our own astounding solutions. As many spiritual teachings remind us, not only are we living in the world, the world lives in us, and so does the cosmos. (Susan Nettleton)
For the 2 poems quoted here, follow the links: https://poets.org/poem/song-open-road-1 and https://allpoetry.com/Night-On-The-Prairies And a link to Larry Morris' poetic view: https://hillsidesource.com/shopping-at-cosco
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, January 29, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Be in 2023!
Time: Jan 29, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
If you are not on our email list for Zoom talks and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page for Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address. Hope to see you there!
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. ~ Lao Tzu
This Sunday, the rain continues in California after the post-New Year's flooding. While the rain is greatly needed, the severity of these recent storms bring tragic events (as well as heroic responses). Like storm and flooding events in other parts of the country, daily life is disrupted. People grieve. In time, we adjust and regroup. We become more aware of changing weather patterns and with that, absorb the need to be vigilant, to pay attention to community alerts and check-in and on each other, as has our been way for centuries. Communities can solidify or fall apart. Modern knowledge now brings the sobering understanding that human activity impacts not just social structure, but the very climate itself, including extreme weather.
But rain, like water, can also be seen in a spiritual context. So today has me thinking of Rumi's poetry volume titled "Unseen Rain". Authored and translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks, 1986, they write: "In some languages of the Middle East the word for "rain" and the word for "grace" are the same. These quatrains are evidence of that invisible gift falling on the mature spirit and master poet...". To me, all Rumi poetry speaks of unseen Grace and all rain is Grace. Unseen isn't, of course, about physical vision; it's about the Unrecognized Divine that is awaiting recognition in an opening within us, each in our own way, at a receptive moment. The overwhelming force of a storm can be that moment, as well as the still quiet peace of meditation.
Listening to the rain outside my door and sensing it as Grace, changes the atmosphere within me and around me. The vibrant green of grass and foliage outside the windows, speaks of renewing life. If we are indeed a living aspect of this wondrous creation we find ourselves in, then that green is a shared renewal within. Wherever you are this Sunday in your spiritual reflection, consider the Grace of rain and yes, the weather. As Jesus put it, "...for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45.)
This rain storm is very much visible, although it's relationship to the severe drought conditions that preceded the "atmospheric rivers" of rain is not so clearly understood. The drought has been lessened, but not ended. As time moves on, more data will guide human water use and storage policies in this season of climate change. That in and of itself, feels like Grace. (Susan Nettleton)
"Not only do the thirsty seek water, The water too thirsts for the thirsty."--Rumi
For more thoughts on renewal, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/renewal
For more Rumi: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../SunMustCome/index.html
This past week has had me envisioning a coin for 2023. One side says Gratitude, perhaps there is a sunny rainbow; the other side says Forgiveness, perhaps there are raindrop-like tears...The word "Time" arcs above both sides; below has simply "2023". My coin image is a melding of two ideas (ones I like writing about). The first, from American poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967):
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. And when you spend it, spend it wisely so that you get the most for your expenditure."
The second is from Norman Vincent Peale (1891-1993), author of "The Power of Positive Thinking", who wrote that forgiveness and gratitude are "two sides of the same coin". He encouraged those who could not find their way to forgive a situation or person or themselves to practice gratitude until they could. Gratitude opens the heart to forgiveness and forgiveness brings forth the power of gratitude.
So this coin of 2023 is a reminder that we are moving through time, and our feeling states, our hearts, and our ideas-- sources of negativity and dissatisfaction, as well as creativity, deep insight, and yes, happiness--take time to ripen and mature. Most often, we forgive over time; forgiveness is a healing process and, depending on the depth and circumstances of the wound or offense, we need time to forgive, to allow a new understanding to come. Similarly, we expand our capacity for gratitude over time as we grow our capacity to appreciate life--our world of 'people, places and things', the times when problems simply work out, the magnificence and intricate beauty of the world. In time (as Peale often wrote), we come to an understanding that 'problems' are the impetus to spiritual depth and new mastery through deeper reliance on God.
The coin of 2023 reminds us we have choices, spiritual choices all year long. If you don't feel grateful, try forgiveness. If you cannot forgive, give thanks. With every impasse, loss, or disappointment, life provides compensation and an alternative path. Then, we have the choice to turn our attention to the gift of newness. Life continually renews itself and that process of renewal is you. Let every coin you come across be a reminder. (Susan Nettleton)
For poet Jane Kenyon's take on Happiness, Forgiveness and Gratitude, follow the link-- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../happiness-56d21cb4b54e9
Welcome to 2023!
New Year's Day brings us a welcomed chance for a clean slate, a new beginning in whatever aspect of life we choose to emphasize. Traditionally, we let go of the old before we claim the new. Hence, yesterday brought many people some encounter and review of 2022 and years past. What strikes me this year is: The power of the New Year Holiday as a global consensus on the space to begin again. The holiday itself shows the power of consciousness.
While known history dates some type of New Year celebration to as early as 4,000 years ago, it's more than likely festivals and religious rites of "starting over" came into being long before that. Early cultures tracked the natural cycles of the seasons, patterns of weather, plant growth and animal behavior, the apparent movement of the constellations, even the daily cycles of light and dark--day and night--that gave rise to the idea of new and renewed life as the way of things. This awareness in turn blended with concepts of prayer and offerings to a larger source of control of such cycles, since humans had little control. Over centuries of tradition, discovery, war and destruction, scientific, philosophical, spiritual and religious experience, human awareness of the cycles of life and human behavior produced New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as a universal archetype. Some cultures still celebrate and draw their traditional festivals from the lunar calendar and as such have other dates for a New Year, but modern commerce and global business across cultures have added recognition of the western calendar with January 1 as the starting the point of the global New Year.
Consider this agreement as a collective creation of human consciousness. History details the political and religious wrangling and the powerful rulers who had their decrees on the making of calendars at different times. It was only in the 20th Century that global business brought our current calendar to the global forefront. Still, whatever the date, the idea of "starting over" remains a human construct that gives emotional power to a specific piece of time where we can let go, regroup, review, and begin anew--each to their own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual capacity. There is a power in a collective archetype. What other possibilities, new global agreements, world-wide consensus, can we agree on and gift our world? As you contemplate your New Year, consider a personal resolution to be a positive part of an evolving collective consciousness. Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton)
for a New Year's poem/prayer by Larry Morris, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/spiritual-launchpad
Merry Christmas!
This Christmas with the extreme cold sweeping across the country (though I have escaped the freeze) has me reflecting on all those who are the helpers in life, especially during the holidays. It is through the generosity of 'helpers': rescue teams, public technicians working through the night to restore services, those who bring unexpected kindness, those willing to move beyond personal concerns in a crisis-- that return holidays to Holy Days and awaken our gratitude. Through gratitude as well as giving, we find the spiritual meaning that satisfies the human heart.
I am remembering a snowstorm in Albuquerque, many years ago. Having grown up in Houston, I saw snow only twice before I moved to New Mexico. In Albuquerque, I learned to navigate snow that soon melted. When I moved to the canyon area in the Sandia Mountains, a neighbor gave me an old pair of tire chains. I protested that I hadn't a clue what to do with them, but he threw them in the trunk of my car and said, "Just keep them there--you never know." Time passed, and then we had a massive snow storm. I was at the church in the city as news of the storm worsened, so I left early for home. I was concerned about my daughter, in first grade at the mountain school, riding home on the a bus. I knew driving would take longer, but I had no idea how treacherous it was becoming. As I approached the mountains on I-25, the traffic was backed- up for miles, visibility was poor, and flashing signs warned only residents were allowed through the pass. This is before cell phones; radio news gave me updates on school closures.
I was near panic at the standstill, when through the whirl of snow I saw a man in an unzipped jacket approaching my car--no gloves, no hat, just an open jacket. He knocked on my window and as I opened it, he said, "I'm just walking up the interstate, checking on people to see if they need help. Are you OK? " I couldn't quite process where he came from and how he managed the icy wind. But I told him where I was headed, and he said, "No one is getting through that pass without a 4-wheel drive vehicle or chains. The State Police have a road block ahead." Then I remembered the chains. I told him I didn't know how to use them but they were in the trunk. He said, "I'll put them on for you, just pop open the trunk and wait till I tell you to move the car a bit." In a few minutes they were on! I had only a moment to yell out a thank you as he waved goodby, walking ahead and quickly disappearing in another flurry of snow. Overwhelmed with gratitude, for the first time in my life I wondered whether I had encountered an actual Angel.
I reached the road block on my chains and was passed through. When I finally drove up the mountain to the subdivision and an empty house, I checked the phone answering machine. There was a message from my neighbor that my daughter was safe at her house. School had closed early. The bus driver had dropped the children off at the bottom of the steep road to the subdivision. My daughter had hiked up through the snow with friends, but headed home. Not sure what to do when the wind was blowing snow everywhere, she climbed into our dog house! Fear of spiders made her change her mind and she walked to safety at her friend's home.
Human angels and yes, perhaps unseen other realm angels, are part of the balancing, protecting, Grace of all Life. Our sense of wonder, love and gratitude draw them near. There are life's moments when we too become the angel with our generosity, our compassion, and care. Whatever your spiritual background and path--even with all the storms of life--let this be the season of a heart-opening to the Goodness of Life and it's Wondrous Possibilities. Stay open to Grace. Merry Christmas, Susan Nettleton
for a poetic perspective on Christmas by Larry Morris, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/christmas-vision-2007
The week before Christmas in American culture is usually a hectic time of last minute preparations, gift shopping and get-to-togethers. Now once again, this week carries the backdrop of Covid spread and the national call to to those who have yet to get the bivalent booster, to do so to prevent the Covid tragedies of the 2020 and 2021 holidays. Last week I wrote of giving yourself a gift of healing; the vaccine is one way to do that. As I have written many times, spiritual healing includes the knowledge and skill of the scientific/medical world. It is only the ideas and confused, mixed motives of human beings that separate and divide science and religion. But today, as a further step in healing, I am reflecting on Deep Peace.
Deep Peace is one of the ways of naming the core state of our innermost nature. This means that the essence of our life, of all forms of life, is always a state of Peace. The essence of life, which is God, the All that Is, is Peace. Since nothing exists outside of that, all is Deeply at Peace. Such a statement is bound to stir confusion when society and the world at large is far from peaceful. War in Ukraine and elsewhere rages on even in the face of bitter winter; we have not just the threat of disease and Pandemic, but climate change, with predictions of food and water shortages and more conflict. How can we claim to be at peace?
To hold a vision of the world and ourselves at peace is not about ignoring the experiences of conflict right in front of us or our own private turmoils and agitation. It is about touching the Deep Peace at the core that is not the same thing as our struggles to find peace, or to broker peace, or the relax and calm down. These practices have their value, their time and place. Learning to "be at peace" and achieve an inner calm is healing, just like a truce is healing, creating a space where the world can recollect itself. But Deep Peace just is. It is the very fabric of Creation; it is not to be won or achieved. It is Grace. It is You.
I had a renewed taste of it last night as I drove through the cold, dark, silent neighborhood streets, with Christmas lights delicately sparkling through open curtains and across lawns. It was a magical transformation from the agitated thrills of Halloween that had taken over the neighborhood in October. This was Peace. A wave of Deep Peace flowed through the car and through me and I remembered: Christmas Peace. Deep Peace at the Center. Let it find you.(Susan Nettleton)
for a Blessing of Deep Peace: https://hillsidesource.com/celtic-blessing-of-deep-peace
Last Sunday, I took a spiritual look at the issue of money as we entered the holiday season. Today, I am looking at the season with healing in mind. Along with inflation, December brings renewed health warnings, as flu cases rise, pediatric wards fill with RSV, and new strains of Covid emerge. But it is not just viral infections that are fueling public health care fears, it is also mental health issues. Recent surveys show as high as 90% of Americans believe there is a mental health crisis in the US, and 80% of adults consider children's mental health to be a public mental health emergency. The reasons underpinning these concerns include the years of Pandemic with all it's uncertainty in a time of political polarization, an opioid epidemic, and the public health threats of racism and gun violence, along with the lack of access to health care and it's costs. This concern shows that the public is beginning to understand that mental health is critical to both well-being and physical health.
Our stories of magical Christmas's and miraculous Divine interventions have brought light and wonder to our lives for centuries, and in this hemisphere that light literally is at the darkest point of the year. That Light has inspired times of peace, love, and deep spiritual insight. Now in the 21st century, why not let that magic include healing.
I have known a few people in life who gave themselves a Christmas gift each year--actually wrapping it, putting it under the tree with everyone else's gifts and then unwrapping it with joy when everyone's gifts are opened. It always seemed to me a strange practice, but I appreciate the self-care, creativity (and independence!) that underlies self-giving. What if you could unwrap a gift of healing this year, a gift from yourself? I encourage you to pick one aspect of your life to heal spiritually this December. It may be a problem with the body that you have been neglecting, or concern for your own mental health, or a relationship, a memory, a grudge, a heart ache, a fear. It may seemingly have nothing to do with the pandemic years. But today, as it is, name it as now on the path of spiritual healing. Nurture it with prayer. Tend to it with what Emmett Fox terms "Divine Wisdom expressed through 'common sense'". That common sense may include professional or other expert support. Above all, listen to your healing, leading the way. Your gift may not be ready to fully open when December arrives on the door step of the New Year, but it will not be what it was. The healing begins today. (Susan Nettleton)
For a poetic taste of the love that is involved in such healing, follow the link: https://onbeing.org/poetry/annunciation/
Today, as I opened my front door for a walk, I saw the fruit trees that dot the yard, now coming into their fullness. The word 'abundance' came to mind. Immediately in front of me was the largest of the yard's citrus fruit, the pomelo tree, the branches bending gracefully with the weight of over 60 pomelos. (I counted them in my wonder!) Behind me was an equally loaded grapefruit tree, not quite ripe, and the surrounding trees at various stages: tangerines, oranges, pomegranates and avocado. Nature's bounty, nourished by human intent, cultivation and care.
Abundance is the term used in New Thought, as well as other modern religious teachings that see God's grace and power not just in nature, but in material manifestation and prosperity. As we begin December, we enter a time of community celebrations, holy holidays, gift giving, fund raising efforts and the year's review. This year, we carry the weight of inflation with the usual financial pressure of December. Today, I encourage you to reflect on the spiritual aspect of your financial well-being and carry that exploration through the month. We all grow up with some sort of attitude and belief about money, expenses, earnings, giving, receiving and their roles in our well-being. Those early ideas form a foundational structure of expectations, attitudes, and if you are lucky, a skill set for managing finances and material needs and wants. As we mature, we have tangible experiences that re-enforce or challenge that structure as we manage situations as best we can. The sum total of all this composes what we term "prosperity consciousness." Your prosperity consciousness may have never had a direct link to your spiritual understanding, yet if you are pulled to living spiritually, sooner or later, the inner life wrestles with the material world to reconcile and integrate finances with the essential need for food, clothing, shelter, health care and the emotional need for stability, comfort, companionship and competency.
There is not one answer or methodology that speaks to everyone in this process; just like there is not one way of a spiritual life. New Thought interpretations of Eastern and Biblical traditions focus on consciousness--your thoughts, perceptions, and interpretations determine outcome and future events. Consciousness creates experience. Along with that principle is the principle of an abundant creation, sustained by Divine Love. All that supports life is available through a consciousness of acceptance. As Jesus put it, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) What do you need? Fulfillment is "prosperity."
When I was first exposed to these principles, New Thought leaders and teachers used the phrase "opulence" to describe the fullness of creation and its prosperity. That word bothered me, because it seemed to confuse the idea of what is 'needed' with a need for extravagance, in a world where millions grapple daily for sustenance. As humanity begins to wrestle with the seriousness of environmental damage done by human extravagance, opulence is no longer appropriate. But recognition of the abundance of creation, its diversity and resilience on so many levels, opens our minds to new positive possibilities in a shared world. In this 21st Century world, prosperity may mean the Peace that comes in knowing, "We all have enough." Begin with you. (Susan Nettleton)
For Hillside's version of Prosperity Affirmations, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/prosperity-affirmations
Today's post is an excerpt from my Zoom talk this morning, "The Self You Are Not". To be on the email list for information and links to future Zoom talks, email your request to hillsideew@aol.com The audio version of today's Zoom talk will be added to our website audio files over the next week or so. Hillsidesource.com
Self as a concept, developed over centuries, with various descriptions and definitions that come in and out of fashion. Concepts are platforms that we gravitate to, adopt or usually born into that become the framework around which we build our lives, understanding and knowledge and values. This is one aspect of the self you are not. The self is a construct and who and what you are becomes limited by that construct. You are far more than our ideas of self; out constructs, our intellect and even our imagination cannot contain the whole "knowledge" of the cosmos. Nevertheless, I offer a model of a Wheel of Identity, where self is the the hub, and the spokes are all the identities and roles that we express in life, as work and relation labels, like mom or grandmother, or son and daughter, friend all your relatives, and the work of work and the concerns of the body and interests and activity.
One way to see this is that all those identities compose the self but the self is not limited to those identities. It's a useful picture for dealing with the shifts in life where some of the spokes fall off. You lose a relationship, a role, your appearance or body changes, or your retirement funds, the center holds despite the losses. If the center collapses because the spoke falls off, it means you made that (or those because sometimes one loss triggers another) particular identity your hub, your core. And it is time to rethink that misplacement. The self expresses through identities. And it seems to me that a solid self, self acceptance come when 3 ways of viewing this wheel line up--who you actually are (that is the identities are true) is who you want to be and who you think you should be. The actuality is congruent with the your shoulds and your longing. This idea of the self-you-are-not can refer to the self you long to be, or the measuring up (based on all sorts of ideology, what you feel is correct, or the best thing), the true spokes that are missing. Or it can refer to the false identities that you carry, based on duty or shoulds or expectations of others or other subterfuge, that we carry and invest energy in, but hold little meaning or truth to them for us. They're out there as a spoke, but dead weight. Pre-tense consumes tremendous energy. This wheel is dynamic, it is not fixed. If we freeze it, hold on to every identity, despite the changing nature of life or identities that are incompatible, behavior that is incompatible, our self image freezes, remains the same, there's this ravine, between who the self is and who we think we are, this splintered wheel, we create internal conflict. The mind doesn't work well with this kind of conflict. We can avoid dealing with it, again at a cost of energy and distraction and dissatisfaction. While there is this idea of an unchanging self, the reality is we are changing, we physically and emotionally grow, we learn new skills, and essentially enter a new world.
(Susan Nettleton)
For some of today's reading, follow the links below.
The Hillside Source is an online resource project of Hillside Community Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.