July 23, 2023

Today caps another week of global extreme heat. Warnings, news, and interpretations of the sustained heat now saturate the internet. As in the early weeks of the Pandemic, people across the globe are struggling to process new danger and come to grips with changing realities. Although the issue of climate change is far from new, a growing awareness of the seriousness of extended extreme heat cracks the shell of denial. For many, rising temperatures are met with rising fear. While fear is a natural reaction to threat and in it's own way protective, it is essential to move beyond fear to discover what is required of us to not just survive, but thrive. This heat wave will pass; the impact will linger. Life, as we have collectively experienced it, is shifting.

In the early phases of the pandemic, there was confusion and fear, rapidly followed by all sorts of theories and conflicting strategies. Group identifications spawned conspiracies, as well as anger and denial, looking for someone (including opposing forces) to blame. While pandemics had existed historically, the Covid-19 virus was an extraordinary threat--unknown, deadly, and confounding. Today, we have powerful vaccines, effective medication and treatment protocols. Unquestionably, the solutions that emerged involved global effort and massive scientific exchange, along with the heroic efforts of key essential workers that sustained social order and care during lock-downs of the world's great cities. Those scientific discoveries, made in response to this initially baffling virus, have now initiated new healing possibilities and treatments in other diseases as well.

My point here is that while we (once again) face a vast range of ideas, opinions, and predictions, there is much about the dramatically changing weather that is unknown. Yes, compared to the arrival of Covid-19, there is already a degree of accumulated scientific climate research and data, and yes, there are technologies that are being developed, and policies that are being drafted. But it is wise, and I think essential, to realize that as we struggle to adapt, we are actually struggling with the unknown and emerging new norms, yet to be established. Together, globally, we are reaching to bring forth the new.

Spirituality itself at its deepest core is a plunge into the unknown. It is this willingness to enter the unknown that takes us beyond the dead past of a prescribed path to a living discovery that is Now. Life's patterns shift and we with them. That is what living is. (Susan Nettleton).

For poetry and the unknown process:

https://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../PoemWaitsat/index.html

https://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhenIfoundth/index.html

https://poets.org/poem/not-ideas-about-thing-thing-itself

July 16, 2023

In a week marked by both extreme heat and devastating rainfall across the globe, it seems to me a good Sunday to write about comfort. Not the kind of comfort that promotes complacency, but the comfort that allows self care and gives space for emotional stability. Soothing comfort aids resiliency and strengthens our capacity for positive action in a changing world. What or who brings you comfort?

Learning to self soothe begins when we are babies and continues as we encounter more and more of life's complexities. But an important part of self-soothing is being aware of our external comforts, as well as our inner ways of easing the stress of life. Environment is an aspect of this and environmental research shows that in general, both subjective and biological factors shape our comfort. Our sense of comfort, for example in heat exposure, involves our biologic response to temperature, as well as our personal psychological perspective on what is comfortable. With extreme heat, the physiologic takes over and psychologically we need to be aware of and accept the body's limits. This is why local public health departments strive to educate and warn citizens about extreme temperature changes. It is not just our ideas that contribute to stressors. Each human body has parameters that form consistent, scientifically measurable, collective responses. But our minds add flavor and meaning to that and can modulate, if not regulate, the overall impact. Taking comfort is not a superficial fix; it is an aspect of healing and repair.

Religious scholar Evelyn Underhill wrote, “We mostly spend [our lives] conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual—even on the religious—plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be: and that Being—not wanting, having, and doing—is the essence of a spiritual life.” What brings comfort to our sense of Being? In Buddhism, the root of suffering is the demand for permanence; comfort comes through the understanding that life is change. It may seem strange to see comfort in impermanence, but whatever may be the situation that disturbs you, "this too shall pass." Hinduism as a complex religious culture with the concepts of karma and maya (the veil that creates illusion, obscuring the real), through multiple deaths and rebirths, offers the comfort of a larger life in the trials of any given lifetime. Islam, Judaism and Christianity offer in different forms, assurances of God's Grace. In all religions, or in our personal practice, ritual, prayer and community offer spiritual comfort.

Yet, there is also the unique Being and personal experience of each of us. As I write, I hear a bird faintly through closed windows. The sound is incredibly sweet. It reminds me despite the frightening heat and storms, there is a sweetness to Nature. The grand myth of Noah's arc and the flood comes to mind. The dove returns, the waters recede, and the rainbow appears as God's promise..."while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." So I have moved from my insulated typing to a faint recognition of beauty as birdsong, and the unspoken mystery behind the world of nature; from individual comfort to an archetypal image of dove and rainbow, with deepening assurance, that although everything changes, and human beings are far from perfect, life is resilient, and from my perspective, beneficent.

Let this day lead you to a new awareness of what brings you comfort and eases your way.

For poetic play on comfort: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../oatmeal-by-galway-kinnell/ and https://allpoetry.com/Ode-to-My-Socks

July 9, 2023

As we move deeper into July, there's a strange mix of bursts of activity, sour news, worrisome weather, and a pressure to finish what must be finished before life accelerates in the fall.

That had become the feel of Southern California as the July 4th holiday passed, and I chewed over ideas for today's post. Then last night I saw something that swept away such thoughts. I had to make a late evening shopping run at the end of a very long, busy day, and as I turned the corner onto the main boulevard leading home, I saw in the darkening row of buildings, a lit marquis from one of the churches along the road. Usually, the large churches in the neighborhood fill their signs with sermon titles, dates and times of service, and names of the speakers, but this sign glowed white with only 1 word in black--4 letters--which immediately flooded me with peace. It simply said, "REST".

Even now, with more to-do lists in front of me, I have to smile at the irony of the power of that sign. I have been in ministry for 39 years and when Hillside built it's first church in the Heights in Albuquerque (1986), we too installed a marquis, and I took on the job of putting up the weekly Sunday notice. Like most ministers we strove to have attention catching titles. (Probably the most audacious was Larry Morris' "Bullet Train to Nirvana".) By contrast, I now appreciate the impact of simply announcing "REST". But what flooded through me at the stop light was the clarity of the spiritual meaning. This is not a call to just resting the body, or the mind, or seeing that you get a good night's sleep. This is a call to awareness that all things, ALL things, rest in the unfathomable Cosmic Order. ALL things, rest in God. As St. Augustine wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

So spiritual rest is stopping the struggle, including the struggle to be our "best self" in order to simply be and trust the larger field of God. Often that feels like a reaching, and an intuitive stirring, that is both longing and peace. It becomes a resting in acceptance, and the deepening assurance of Good. With that rest, we learn to trust the promptings of our own hearts, still 'resting' while fully participating in life as who, what and where we are. Let today bring you spiritual rest. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry follow the links: https://allpoetry.com/Moments-Indulgence

https://www.seedsofsilence.org.uk/pax---dh-lawrence.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../RestBeTaken/index.html

from Larry Morris, https://hillsidesource.com/destiny-poem

July 2, 2023

July in America bursts onto the calendar with the energy of July 4--American Independence Day! For the 4th, Independence is virtually synonymous with Freedom, signifying the power of a newly formed country--fighting for independence from colonial rule--to structure its own government and set its own laws, based on new values that emerged from early settlers and ongoing revolutionary war.

On a more personal level, our individual sense of freedom evolves through our life experience. Freedom is tied to unfolding skill and growing independence, as we encounter and adapt to the responsibilities and demands of life. Freedom is an aspect of learning as well as self-mastery, skill, and creativity (arriving at our own unique ways of being). I recently watched my grandchildren in a preschool setting. The routine of the day was structured circle time: listening to the teacher, following the discussion, answering questions, etc., interspersed with periods of self-chosen activities, free to wander and explore project stations, play with peers, roam the playground, or move through rooms in expanding independence and the joy of freedom that held safety. This is a simplified model of our personal self discovering a freedom that includes social responsibilities, work, relationships, rules and procedures and limits, with areas of life that are "free time", which we personally define in varying ways. Ideally, community and/or society provide some structured "safety" that allows the time and space to explore new ways of being. We have not fulfilled the ideal, but rather its shape changes with each succeeding generation.

When we look at freedom from a spiritual perspective, we have the concept of free will: that is, a choice to follow a particular spiritual path, or turn away from a spiritual connection altogether. Turning away from spirituality can mean a range of things from dark despair to an existential freedom through affirmation of the human being and it's self-contained potential. A spiritual path on the other hand, opens possibilities of freedom beyond personal limitation and human struggle. Yet, beyond that is a dawning awareness that self-will is ultimately illusion, because there is no independent self. Freedom is awakening from separation. You are the world. You are the Beyond-the-World. You are Freedom. (Susan Nettleton)

For a sampling of insights on freedom from hillsidesource.com, follow the links:

https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/24/freedom

https://hillsidesource.com/affirmation-prayer-for-freedom...

https://hillsidesource.com/.../little-shack-chooses-freedom

https://hillsidesource.com/freedom-and-god

(click the red circle over the page to view article through Issuu.com)

June 25, 2023

With the summer solstice last Wednesday, we officially entered summer on the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. It's worth a moment of reflection on the wonder of the Earth as a whole, carrying both winter and summer simultaneously. It is our tilt that creates our seasons and those seasons in turn shape cultural variations. Yet we remain (and struggle to comprehend) one world.

As Earth spins on its tilted axis, it wobbles and cycles through variations in the axis. It is postulated that this is an aspect of a natural balancing system that responds to shifts and movement of various forms of mass across and within the planet. Shifts in mass cause deviations in the tilt, and change in the tilt affects climate. This month, the scientific journal Nature published an article describing how human water depletion from underground reservoirs is changing Earth's tilt. This research adds yet another dimension to global understanding of human activity and climate change. As disturbing as it sometimes seems, such research is essential in pinpointing human practices that must adapt and evolve to sustain the balance within an ecosystem that includes human activity.

In another science announcement this month, Frontiers in Public Health published a large study looking at the psychological impact of attending any type of live sporting event. The study showed that being a spectator improves well-being (life satisfaction and the feeling that life is worthwhile) and decreases loneliness. Past research has already demonstrated that higher life satisfaction brings greater physical health, improved aging, and lower death rates. While other studies have shown the benefits of actively playing sports, this one is for the cheering crowd, the audience, the fans--whether they go to the local little league game, or Dodger Stadium, or brave international World Championships--the social atmosphere and sense of belonging, the participation in the play of life, lifts the human spirit and our physical well-being.

Sunday is not the time to stress over the tilt of the planet, but rather, spiritually observe the tilt within yourself. Spirituality is the center from which the activity of life flows with your unique balancing system. Does that balance require more turning inward, or in the zest of summer, reaches to cheer life forward? Replenish what is drained dry; move the weight on your shoulders to a better location. Maybe the world really does mirror your consciousness and awaits your joy. (Susan Nettleton)

For baseball: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../analysis-of-baseball

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../first-girls-in...

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../57870/were-human-beings

For the spectator: https://gladdestthing.com/poems/a-singing-voice

June 18, 2023

Today is Father's Day in America, the complement to the older Mother's Day--a time to acknowledge the fathers, dads, stepfathers, grandfathers, and father figures in our lives. The motivating force in the organization of the first Father's Day (1910) is attributed to Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, who was raised by a widower with 14 children. It's easy to see why she saw the need to expand the idea of parental honor beyond Mother! Out of her experience, Father's Day recognizes such "fatherly" qualities as strength, guidance and provision of sustenance, shelter and protection. With our modern capacity to explore many different points of view from history and varying cultures across the globe, our sense of father can expand beyond our personal experience with our own fathers. This capacity is really a form of education that moves us beyond the process of growing up and childhood exposure to different kinds of family systems and different 'father' personalities from our own neighborhood and extended family circle. For those who are raised in Christianity, the idea of Father takes on the added dimension of God as the Heavenly Father. The implications and meaning of a Father God tend to be colored, at least subconsciously, by our own family experience. This is all to show the possibility of the wide range of ideas about fathers and what it means to be a father, let alone a 'good' father.

Still human nature tends to be heuristic, that is we simplify what seems too complex (and often emotionally challenging), in order to make our judgements and choices manageable for us. We create 'rules of thumb', short cuts in our thinking and decision-making process. This means we boil down the complexity of what kind of father, or man, is to be honored and in what way, to simplistic, manageable ideas. Our personal and/or collective ideas become the archetypal father.

Our archetypal judgement is usually interwoven with what is seen as a universal concept, but few people really take the time to sort through their personal layers, to have a realistic view of the bias they carry. Psychotherapist Carl Jung, theorized that archetypes are linked to primordial images and patterns found throughout literature and across cultures, creating a sense that these are indeed universal concepts, or even universal truths. But my post today is centered on your self-reflection and your truth. This Sunday offers an opportunity to step outside your rehearsed assumptions and familiar reflections, and instead turn to interior listening.

The 21st century presents us with ideas beyond our usual heuristics. We all carry (male and female) aspects within ourselves that rise to the archetypal Father role, as well as the Mother archetype. Are those roles really limited in the ways the short cuts suggest? Enter into Father's Day (or not) in whatever way you are socially inclined. But also take the time to discover the richer texture of your own inner life, the way you personally offer strength and guidance, the ways you sustain and protect life around you, beyond the scope of Father's Day. You too have fathered life. (Susan Nettleton)

For poems on Fatherhood follow the links: https://world.350.org/.../The-Peace-of-Wild-Things-by...

https://exceptindreams.livejournal.com/64857.html

https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate...

June 11, 2023

This Sunday, I encourage you to bring into sharper focus your inner directive(s) that shapes your life course. Earlier this year, an old friend texted me a strange message simply saying, "Tell me! What is coursing through your heart ? A voice asked me to ask you." Knowing this meant an inner voice, there was no need to pursue that thought. As to the question, it had been a long intensely busy day, with an even longer "to do" list waiting. I was tired, pre-occupied with various events, including world news, with no energy to explain. So I began by writing, "not possible to boil it down to a text", but then I remembered philosopher Blaise Pascal's quote, a favorite saying from my mentor in Psychiatry training,"The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." I paused with the realization that all my rumination was a mental process that brought more fatigue and more thinking. So I asked myself: "Ok, what comes from the heart, at the root of now, what is my sustaining course?" The words were quick and clear (and I have used them often, in various forms in these Sunday posts). I ended the text with "Now it comes: Feed the light, feed the light, feed the light." That seemed to satisfy the questioner.

That sense of a sustaining course is what I mean by inner directive, a principle that you are committed to and live from. This can roughly refer to your guiding values, but has the added element of conscious agreement and your intent to live according to the "directive". We can have a kind of 'thumbs up' response to general good acts and social mores but that is not the same thing as an actual commitment to ourselves to live as an expression of such a value. In Sanskrit, this idea of commitment to an inner directive is called Sankalpa. 'San' refers to one's connection to the highest truth; 'kalpa' is a solemn vow. Although there are various levels and historic interpretations, Sankalpa refers to an intention formed by the heart and mind; a solemn vow that becomes a commitment to your highest truth or deepest meaning. In a recent Iyengar yoga publication, UC Berkeley literature professor and Iyengar yoga teacher, Michael Lucey discussed the ancient Sanskrit concept of Sankalpa in the context of Pascals' quote on the heart's reasons. A brilliant Renaissance mathematician and physicist, Pascal had a profound religious experience that altered his life in a time (1623-1662) of new scientific discoveries, new art forms, and expanded exploration of foreign culture. He walked the path of science and gave his heart to God.

Professor Lucey envisions Pascal's understanding of humans as "a combination of body and mind, of matter and spirit"; since both aspects are "embodied", the physical level (that fundamental building block of creation) may "offer a way for heart and mind to communicate." The focus of the article is the practice of yoga. But I read a broader, analogous process that applies to our individual (and unique) sense of meaning and purpose. To paraphrase Professor Lucey, sometimes, our intention begins in the mind, in the world of mental ideas, reasoning and logic, and our directive is to live that intention, through actual concrete physical activity, guided by an inner listening for the heart's support; keeping that inner channel open. Other times our intention springs directly from subtle intuition. The pull of the initial intuitive vision can fade, unless it is put into practice with habitual reinforcing activity that includes mental process like planning, scheduling, choices and goals.

Today I am encouraging you to consider your life intention, that inner directive. Perhaps you have several. Pick one, or let one leap out at you. Take a look at the goals you have set before you, big ones, or even one day's 'resolve to do list' to point you in the direction by raising the question, "why does this matter to me"--there is a value, a principle, an idea that has some degree of meaning for you, or you wouldn't act on it. Values are related to meaning; human satisfaction (and health!) is imbedded in our sense of meaning. Contemporary research has shown in varying ways, a clear link between our sense of meaning and our health and recovery. What is coursing through your brain? and What is coursing through your heart? (Susan Nettleton)

"We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.” Blaise Pascal

For poetic perspective, follow the links:

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../housewasquie/index.html

https://www.best-poems.net/.../thread-by-denise-levertov...

June 4, 2023

June's arrival, sooner or later pulls us outdoors with a seasonal shift in weather and a collective spirit that offers more time to roam beyond our usual scenes and routines. Even if your work seems unrelenting, the collective spirit fueled by the sun's light and warmth pulls us outdoors. As one of my favorite lines from Larry Morris' poetry sings, "June is the Joy of God." Somewhat different than exploring what brings you satisfaction and smiles, the emphasis here is the Joyfulness of Creation itself.

Today I include a picture of a June discovery that burst into view for me on Friday. It was hiding in a nearby garden. (picture below) A quick online search suggested it was some mixed variety of an unusual succulent known as a brain cactus. This immediately sparked all sorts of questions in my mind about patterns that repeat in a variety of life forms (more than 'art imitating nature', nature 'imitates' itself). The brain cactus was a sudden reminder: While we, as aspects of the Divine, delight in our own human creativity, the Joy of God includes our wondrous delight of discovery. No matter how long we have lived, and how much we have traveled and experienced, we cannot possibly grasp the fullness of this Earth. We have more than enough for a life-time of discovery, without going further than our own well-known living space, our neighborhood, our circle of relationships and territory. When we add the power of creativity to constant discovery, our possibilities are endless.

This Sunday, life calls you to a new discovery. If you are caught in yesterday, you might miss it. The life-renewing joy of discovery might not pierce through a haze of emotions, if your mood is shadowed by disappointments, frustration, argument, despair--in your personal situation or in any given week's sobering events. Shake it off this June Sunday. Is life really limited to a constricted, well-worn personal space? Even if you cannot, for one reason or another, move outside it, let go of your boundaries and open to whatever pulls your attention right where you are. In the links below, 12th century Hindu poet, points to the Absolute in the white jasmine flower, and the "oil in the seed'; American poet, Mary Oliver (1935-2019) directs us to a path of discovery as we actually enter "what presents itself continually"--gifts from the Joy of God. (Susan Nettleton

Link to Mahadevi: http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Treasureinth/index.html

For Mary Oliver: https://poetryconnection.net/.../have-you-ever-tried-to.../

May 28, 2023

Buddhist poet Gensei (1623-1668) wrote: "The point in life is to know what’s enough–", that is to say, the measure of life's "necessities" for you, as an individual. As May comes to a close, so does Mental Health Month and this seems a good time to look at "what is enough". We are all subject in this digital age to an overload of blatant and subtle attempts at conditioning our emotions to feel we need whatever is cleverly packaged and promoted, whether it is an thing, a place, a practice, an ideology. One aspect of mental health is our capacity to sort through the noise of collective pressure and quietly listen to our own circumstances and inner direction that brings us balance, stability and resilience.

This is also Memorial Day weekend, a holiday that has evolved to mark two pinnacles of American culture--1) an actual Memorial Day of ceremony, prayer, sadness and pride, that honors those U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces and 2) a socially-shaped declaration of the beginning of summer--regardless of the solstice-- celebrated with outdoor get-togethers, travel, and general revelry. The somewhat fragile link between the two is the idea of celebrating the freedom, living the freedom gained by their sacrifice. The link is fragile because revelry often seeks to forget the cost, the human tragedy of war and conflict. Grief can drown us, plunging us into hopeless despair. Collectively and often unconsciously, we seek the same balance, stability and resilience. This polarity extends beyond the military, to the broader fields of life that include suffering and loss, as well as joy and delight.

Ultimately, spiritually, there is an over-arching Peace and Reconciliation of these opposites. That is not a puzzle that we can work-out with our intellect, nor by totally giving ourselves over to dark grief, nor to wild pursuit of pleasure. But we can keep a space inside our mind/heart free and open to 'That Greater Truth', until spiritual recognition finds us. And we can consider--as a unique individual--what is enough. Something in each of us, knows that. (Susan Nettleton)

For Gensei's poem, https://gladdestthing.com/poets/gensei

and for Memorial Day a Rilke poem, https://brktrail.com/dove/

May 21, 2023

This Sunday's post is an excerpt of today's Zoom talk: "The Safe and the Sacred"....A safe space is defined as "a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment or any other emotional or physical harm." It really can be a mental health tool for those who are marginalized or have gone through trauma. What is safe is a range of not in danger or not likely to be harmed: not damaged nor injured, or without risk or even disagreement. The Sacred, in the religious/spiritual sense, means something that is dedicated or set apart for the expression, or worship of a deity, or religious ceremony. It is consecrated and invokes spiritual respect and/or devotion, awe and reverence. and is not to be tampered with, not to be changed or challenged. Of course we also have the meaning of a secular kind of sacred, Monday Night Football or or taco Tuesday, or like the poem below, your car. The sacred then becomes a kind of hyper-value system that others cannot disrupt or mess with it that has it's own meaning for you that may or may not have spiritual meaning, or maybe it does it its own way that you cannot articulate, or is not really conscious. What makes something sacred? Within religious structures, history and religious authorities determine the sacred, often a fixed idea that can date back to centuries of dedication, passed on through generations.

When you grow up in a religious frame work, the sacred is integrated into your thought structure, and your experiences either solidify that or shatter that, (like unanswered prayer, or trauma when you cannot find the meaning), or you are exposed to a larger world beyond the family frame of reference. As individuals, we find the sacred through our own internal sense, just as we have the capacity to sense threat and to sense our own safety and the safety of others. As with the sacred, our sense of safety or threat is shaped, framed, honed by care-takers when we are young. But there is also a natural awareness--the sound of thunder, the lightening strikes, the slithering reptile, the scary mask, loud angry shouting, physical pain itself, based on our sensory perception but also a neurological translation of that sensation as threat, or for something else as comfort, the presence of others, a hug, a lullaby. So safety is a blend of knowledge--passed on to us, sometimes specifically taught and sometimes indirectly taught through modeling--and innate, some of which I'm sure is genetic, encoded 'knowledge' across generations that becomes instinct.

We know the sacred in the same way. We directly experience it, the way a kid senses threat and safety. It obviously is not a perfected sense in humans. The coding can be wrong, or incomplete, both in a collective sense, as well as for a specific individual. Circumstances change, yet genetic coding is mostly a process that develops over generations. And belief--what we have been taught by others--can be in conflict with our direct experience, which we have also been taught to some degree to either pay attention to, or ignore. And what we have been taught can become obsolete. To quote the Tao de Ching, "times change and with them their demands". Still I am affirming in 2023, the power and presence of the sacred that reveals itself through our intuitive and sensory perception...

For some of today's poetry, follow the link:

https://rolfpotts.com/sacred-stephen-dunn/

May 19, 2023

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, May 21, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: The Safe and The Sacred

Time: May 21, 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.

May 14, 2023

“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” Rainer Maria Rilke

Today is Mothers' Day. Although Mothers' day began as a way to honor and spend time with our own personal mother, when we fully expand the idea of Mothering, we find it embraces a quality of caring for and nurturing others, protecting, teaching, tending to the growth of another. Most people, in one way or another, have mothered someone or something. This implies an innate quality within the human being that is essential to our collective well-being. This care and concern carries with it a vulnerability to anxiety, over not just our own self-interests, but times of worry and fear for others.

As I wrote last week, May is also mental health month, which gives me the chance to highlight anxiety in the context of relationship and a sense of responsibility as well as love. Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the U.S. and affect nearly 30% of adults (women more than men) at some point in their lives with a variety of triggers, symptoms and intensity. We all have times of fear and worry; these emotions are normal reaction to stress and important cues for us in managing our lives. Anxiety disorders though, involve excessive fear and worry out of proportion to the actual situation and hinder our ability to function. Anxiety is often made worse by avoidance of people, places, and activity and that avoidance adds further fuel to life's problems. The forms of anxiety include: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobias, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Just reading this list gives a clear sense of the avoidance that arises as a response. Avoidance further complicates life, feeding more anxiety. The solution lies in learning ways to calm the fear, change our thought processes, and often rearrange our relationships and lifestyle. Progressive desensitization through mental imagery and relaxation is also effective in overcoming phobias and other avoidance issues. In the role of 'mothering', we have the opportunity to support others in managing their anxiety, simply by talking about it.

There are so many tools available to conquer anxiety. Beyond the use of medication (which can be very effective when managed well), there is the gentle practice of meditation to calm both the mind and body, opening to a larger life. When anxious, we can learn to mother ourselves a bit more, as well as turning to a renewed vision of Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and the Divine Mother--all aspects of the transcendent we name God. Susan Nettleton

Follow the link for a poem of a maternal God: https://eewc.com/god-the-mother/

May 7, 2023

I have an underlying question for you today to consider as you read this Sunday's post: What makes you smile?" Since 1949, May has been designated as Mental Health Month in America. While Mental Health awareness has become a global initiative with other dates, programs, and sponsoring organizations that highlight the significance of mental health throughout the year, the May Mental Health Awareness Month brings a national campaign in America to spotlight its critical importance with outreach, educational programs, and a specific theme each year. This year's theme circles around the environmental context of our mental--and emotional--health. As such, I have been receiving many psychiatric/medical updates and various tool-kits that promote public awareness through individual aids to a healthy mental state in this current social environment. Rather than offering a simplistic rationale of "mental illness" to explain away violence in this country, caring for our own mental health gives us new strength and clarity to add our voice, to participate in a deeper collective process of action, healing and change.

Today, I am sharing two of the "tools" sent to me. From the Psych Congress community (a professional psychiatric network that offers conferences throughout the year) comes a "Kindness Challenge" for the rest of this month, aimed to create more positivity through rotating daily tasks:

Monday: Give a compliment to a stranger

Tuesday: Prepare a meal for someone you love

Wednesday: Cozy up with your favorite book

Thursday: Send a thoughtful text to a friend

Friday: Donate clothes or household items you no longer need

Saturday: Leave a nice note for a neighbor

Sunday: Spend some quality time with yourself

A related organization, Evolution of Psychotherapy (with a national conference each year), suggests taking a few moments every day to recognize the positives in your life, and do one thing each day that makes you smile. As you can see, the underlying ideas here are a positive outlook and a balance of social connections and self care.

Since my early years as both a psychiatrist and a minister, I have worked to bridge mental health, physical health, public health, and spirituality. To me, the essence of a positive approach is faith, with a cultivated awareness of the underlying Goodness of Life. I use the word 'cultivated' to reflect my sense that the more we consciously choose to see life as Good, the more a deeper understanding of the actual Joy of Creation is revealed (although it cannot always be communicated). In the world of mental health professionals, spiritually is seen as one component of a "healthy" life, but to me, it is the core from which all health arises. Either way, positivity with a smile, is one place to begin. (Susan Nettleton)

“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

For further inspiration: https://allpoetry.com/.../15768221-The-Miracle-of-Morning...

May 3, 2023

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, May 21, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: The Safe and The Sacred

Time: May 21, 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!

April 30, 2023

Today I invite you to a day of gentleness. This year has sparked a great deal of emotional upheaval with the weather, as well as daily news that shouts for attention and sparks anger, sadness, and fear as a collective backdrop of daily life. While there really aren't shortcuts to finding lasting peace and stability in changing times, we can nourish ourselves with rest. I am not referring to sleeping well, but rather to a kind of emotional rest from intensity. This is not fighting with your feeling states or avoiding doing what you need to get done. It is about giving up the harsh and the hard, in order to cultivate the gentle and the soft. This is an ancient Taoist Principle from Lao Tzu.

"Water is the softest and most yielding substance. Yet nothing is better than water, for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it. Everyone knows that the soft and yielding overcomes the rigid and hard, but few can put this knowledge into practice... " (J.H. McDonald tr.)

I am suggesting you let today be a gentle day, with an attitude of gentleness, first toward yourself and then with a taste of that, toward whatever you may encounter. The subtlety of such a practice quickly reveals itself, when you apply it to your spiritual practice. Can meditation be less rigid...more fluid? What about affirmations or prayer, can prayer be softened?--A softer affirmation, and a gentle approach to the avoided chore, or encounter. In the Taoist text, I Ching, (Book of Changes), the hexagram named The Gentle, is also The Penetrating. The idea here is again, the more you wrestle and try to force your own understanding of a situation or a relationship, the more you remain blocked. Like the metaphor of water that eventually wears through rock, a gentler, softer attempt to spiritually understand an experience or life issue will open consciousness. Gentleness cannot be forced. But if you let your emotions rest (anger, fear/urgency, sadness, even guilt) and trust a softer Sunday, you can know a new peace. (Susan Nettleton)

from Joy Harjov: https://poets.org/poem/eagle-poem

April 23, 2023

Today follows Earth Week 2023, culminating in yesterday's Earth Day events around the world. The first Earth Day, originating in 1970, was focused on America and the need for environmental protection, but quickly expanded to a global level. Since that time, the effects of climate change has become more and more apparent, and solutions more and more politically charged.

In 1970, world population was cited as 3,695,390,336. Thus far in 2023, it is cited at 8,045,311,447. But the actual rate of growth has slowed; it was 2.06% in1970 and last year, with years of steady decline it was 0.83%. Is world population growing? Yes. Is population growth slowing? Yes. What does it mean? Is that a positive development, or a concerning shift? I have encountered debates and predictions on both viewpoints. This is one example of the problem of interpreting our data. Unfortunately, data can be overgeneralized and misused to sway reasoning and create division. Climate and environmental change is a vastly complex field. It requires both specialists in narrow fields and generalists who can synthesize. It requires cooperation, trust, and shared goals.

Currently we are hearing debates between those who see individual and collective behavior as the solution, through re-use, recycling, and decreased consumption (of fossil fuels as well as general consumerism), and those who dismiss that, to see only new technology as the world's answer. This kind of binary, all or nothing thinking only further fragments and divides, rather than considering synthesis. It neglects the value and power of consciousness, and especially collective consciousness, that can be both inclusive and diverse and profoundly intelligent.

What is your highest and best affirmation of this home called Earth? Beyond loyalty to specific places, groups, religious teachings--your longings and fears, gains and losses--how do you perceive and feel this ground. Now that the celebrations, speeches, performances and programs are done (whether your participated or not), what does your heart/mind, inner awareness, say about Earth? That is your consciousness. That is your contribution to us all. (Susan Nettleton)

For Larry Morris' poetic consciousness, from his volume, ON THIS SWEET EARTH:

https://hillsidesource.com/nature-poems-by-larry-morris

April 16, 2023

This week I spoke with someone who has lived with an intense spiritual focus for many, many years and now, late in life, a new struggle has arrived in understanding and following God's Will.

Our conversation has me reflecting on our human ideas that surround the word 'will' and in particular willfulness vs. willingness. In English, the word 'will' has several different meanings, but here I am looking at willfulness as a human state of determination and intention; we choose by an act of the mind or consciousness, to accomplish or experience something. That accomplishment of course may include disregarding or otherwise wrangling with the intention of others--both friends and foes, as well as natural forces, and even God. Our capacity for the conscious use of individual will, our intentionality, is one of the things that allows us to plan for the future and distinguishes us from the rest of the animal world (although, debatably, other animals have varying degrees of choice).

On the other hand, willingness implies cooperation and consent. We say, "yes', ideally with enthusiasm or at least, without resentment. Spiritually, the idea of willingness is an aspect of surrender. One of the sources of confusion with following God's Will or a spiritual directive is that our intention to live life as a spiritual process often requires saying "no" to aspects of the culture we live in, and to the behavior or ideas of others, in order to have the space to discern what is the best course in any given situation, or even in the routine and order of our daily life. Here willfulness--a clear determination and focus on our values, spiritual practice and intention-- can keep us on course. The inner life deepens and a new clarity dawns. Yet, as that happens we begin to realize that the spiritual life includes the Wholeness of life. That Wholeness is everyone and all aspects of yourself! Disregard of others in this Wholeness, disregard of your own inner or outer being, begins to undermine willingness, including spiritual willingness on a very subtle level. In fact, the deeper you go, the more subtle the thread of God's Will becomes. Until something cracks open to the vibrancy of All. (Susan Nettleton).

...And whether a man dispassionately

Sees to the core of life

Or passionately

Sees the surface,

The core and the surface

Are essentially the same,

Words making them seem different

Only to express appearance.

If name be needed, wonder names them both:

From wonder into wonder

Existence opens.

(The Way of Life, Lao Tzu--tr. Witter Bynner)

for more inspiration, follow the links

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Nowuntilthe/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../YouWentAwayb/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../BelovedComes/index.html

April 9, 2023

Happy Easter! Recently in Sunday posts, I have noted the collective energy of overlapping religious holidays this spring. All religions serve a larger dynamism in life, even as they fall short in our struggle for co-existence, peace, equality, and united solutions to global threat. There are seeds of Truth here that can be harvested from contemplation of ancient beliefs and spiritual stories, handed down through generations, that over time form the framework of religion. Contemplation is not superficial conclusions, or dismissals, or blind acceptance of someone else's opinions (including mine), but rather a meditative examination of the spiritual experiences of others and the stream of beliefs that have emerged with those experiences. This is a form of spiritual practice for those who are drawn to a personal, individual path in our modern age of accessible world literature.

So this week, I took a fresh look at the Easter story and what it might reveal to me with over 2,000 years of history. The Easter story doesn't really begin 2,000 years ago; it cross-references other stories, scripture and prophecy across an unknown number of years of the Old Testament. There are myths and legends from other ancient sects that have their own resurrection stories as well, weaving early concepts of life and death. The traditional understanding of Easter is summed up in the Bible (John, 3:16) as "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The crucifixion and agony of Jesus' death is seen as a Divine sacrifice that cancels out the sins of human beings, and grants them resurrection--the overcoming of death, interpreted as eternal life.

In the 21st century, the idea of purification through a sacrificial rite of physical suffering and killing is incomprehensible, although it is a part of human history. Surely there is deeper, timeless meaning here beyond the idea that God as the ultimate Causation has made "His Son" a human/divine object of sacrificial suffering and death to cleanse humanity. Jesus used the metaphor of God as a loving Father, not just of Jesus, but really of all Creation. In doing so he defined the relationship between humans and God in a form that was understandable, a God that cares and takes care of Its Creation. The element of universal love that includes a loving God, along with the call to "love one another", is a radical shift in the collective spiritual awareness of humanity. Here is the idea of a Creator in love with, and delighting in, Its Own Creation.

On Good Friday, I was in waiting in my car for someone, mindlessly looking at a concrete block wall with a massive covering of thick vines and sinewy branches that wound around corners and cracks like muscle on bone. I slowly brought the image in front of me into focus with an inner awareness of Jesus' words, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." (John 15:5) I saw that image as our branching individual consciousness, awareness--springing from the Vine--the Source of Consciousness, the Creative All. The Vine cannot be known in its entirety. It is too vast, but the death of Jesus initiated an opening, an expansion of creative potential within the individual that in turn, expands collective consciousness. That expansion is still unfolding in our understanding, as Love, not suffering. Love is the measure. The power of Consciousness both as God and as human being is revealed in everything that has been created, dissolved and created anew, all that has been lived up to this moment in 2023--a Cosmic Consciousness that remains present, living, in, with, and as all. Matthew 28-20: "...Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Susan Nettleton)

A short Rilke poem on Contemplation: https://onbeing.org/poetry/widening-circles/

For John Updike's call to plunge into the literal crucifixion and resurrection: https://thinktheology.co.uk/.../seven_stanzas_at_easter

And Mary Oliver's incisive description of Jesus: http://michaelppowers.com/wisdom/maybe.html

April 2, 2023

Today is Palm Sunday in the Christian faith (with the exception of the Orthodox Denominations which follow a different calendar), the beginning of Holy Week, and the unfolding of the Easter Celebration. As I wrote previously, this year the Islamic world is also in the Holy Month of Ramadan. In addition, Jewish Passover week begins April 5 this year, a sacred recognition of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery. (The celebration of Passover also brings Christians a reminder that the Christian "Last Supper" was actually Jesus and the Disciples' Passover meal, demonstrating the stream of the common roots of Abrahamic religions). When we look at the vast variety of religious calendars across the globe, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and many smaller devotional paths as part of our ancient observation of spring, this week brings a multiplicity of rituals, prayers, and celebrations. Devotion, ceremony, communal feasts, collective gratitude--all add to the richness of life and nourish the emotional and spiritual need of humanity. Yet sadly, religion can quickly cause division.

My point today as we enter this month and these Holy Days is to affirm a world of diversity--religious, cultural (which includes political), racial, gender/non-gender, physical, emotional, mental, and environmental diversity. As someone recently put it to me, "we all belong to a flock"; our flock lends stability and meaning to our lives. Yet, diversity is also our protection and strength. Diversity brings an expansion of understanding and the power of perspective that alters and shifts experiences, gives us options and feeds creativity. Creativity takes us beyond what we know. Diversity is the way of Nature that offers infinite potential. Sameness closes the door.

Watching young children on the playground who have yet to learn the labels of division, you can marvel at their joy in shared play, regardless of all the social markers and ideas that will eventually push on them to judge, to avoid, to defend and separate. Resolving the difficulties of our 21st century world, requires having all the pieces of the puzzle on the table--not removing pieces, including them. If we had the capacity to tap the collective spiritual fervor of all the religious celebrations of this one week in our hearts, without rigidity or fear, we could bring not just peace to ourselves, but to the whole of life. Our future world waits....(Susan Nettleton)

https://allpoetry.com/On-Angels

https://pollycastor.com/2016/01/22/poem-by-rumi-one-song

March 26, 2023

Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk, "Something More". If you are interested in attending the Sunday talks, add your email to our email notification list at: hillsideew@aol.com

What I am considering here is that basic things like appetite and life satisfaction and wanting something more, are not separate from the spiritual aspect of wanting something more. There is a need for more within the fundamental nature of the human species. And yes, it is influenced, if not hijacked by commercialism and culture, which includes religious teachings. Another factor of the human reach for something more, especially with aging, is the problem of mortality. This life as we know it, does end. And the 'I' that we know and live as 'here' is displaced. I leave the door open for what that means, because to me it is an unknown; I have my speculations, along with all of you. But so much of life has been unknown, we have all lived with the unknown.

We just don't usually focus on it, but we stretch a bit toward it, toward a something more.

Perhaps all the 'something more' quests in our lives are simply inquiries, expeditions, into the unknown.

Yes often we may want more of something known, but what we don't know is what is our limit. Sometimes we are pushed to discover the limits. William Blake wrote: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough." What are the limits of life? In Buddhism, the emphasis is not so much desire itself, the wanting, and possessiveness, as it is coming to terms with the impermanence of form. The other aspect of that is that new forms are constantly coming into manifestation."You say goodbye, but I say Hello." Something else is always forming. That is the joy of life.

"He who binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy, He who kisses the joy as it flies "Lives in eternity's sunrise." (Blake) https://poets.org/poem/eternity

The sun is always setting and the sun is always rising. Life and death are simultaneous processes. Blake thought God manifested himself in Man through the divine quality of human imagination; the true freedom for humans is the freedom to create. And that resonates with some streams of New Thought as well as other thinkers: we are instruments of a creative process that we cannot fully grasp... The Something More I'm talking about this morning is the something more that arises out of the same source that appetite arises, a natural need to be filled by reaching toward more. . . To understand who you are, is to discover something more. To come to understand what is here, is always something more than what you understood before. That's why paying attention to your wants is important. (Susan Nettleton)

Some of the poetry from this morning: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../mind-wanting-more

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../poems/40900/missed-time