Speaking of Spirit

This week, as I walked down our lovely tree-lined street, I saw it...the first leaf of autumn.  Everything in me screamed, "NO!!"  I am not ready for fall, not ready for the cold to begin to seep into my days, not ready for the thoughts of blizzards, ice storms, holidays. But, as a wise person once said, "The only constant in life is change." So, no matter how unwilling I am, how unprepared, how unhappy, the season will change in its own time.   Life happens in its own time. We may try to schedule things. We turn clocks back and forth.  We may assign days to various happenings. But, in reality, what will come to pass arrives when the time is right, in spite of all our protests, manipulations or demands. Change has to happen. If a child doesn't grow, it means something is terribly wrong. If the weather stayed constant, plants would fail to grow. If seeds stayed seeds, there would be no flowers, no food. Change has to happen. Change is a blessing. Writer ...

I remember the first time someone told me to "Forgive and Forget."  I pondered this for days. Forgiving, I felt I could do, but how could I forget?   His Holiness, the Dalai Lama said, " Forgiveness doesn’t mean forget what happened…If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures."   When our world is filled with hate, we cannot forget. We must remember, in order to prevent the hate, the horror, from happening again. Each time we forget, hate rises its ugly head once more. However, we can forgive.  Nelson Mandela when asked why he was not resentful for his imprisonment said, " Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die." When we release resentment, when we forgive, we heal. This healing allows us the energy, the blessings, the grace to move forward in positive ways. We become conduits for positive change because we are no lon...

Evil is evil. Evil wears many faces, has many names and exists in many places. When evil rises up, we cannot hide behind politicians, who may or may not risk their political careers to condemn evil. We cannot run to our clergy, expecting them to somehow conjure up miraculous cures for evil. We cannot turn our backs, expecting someone else to deal with the problem because it isn't in our continent, our country, our state, our city, our community or our home.  Evil IS evil. We must unite and face it. We must say, not again, not now, not ever.  My father, my uncles, my friends did not fight in a land across the sea, some dying, to stop Evil from spreading.   We cannot run from Evil, for it exists everywhere we go. BUT, we can stop it.  Be a Light in the darkness of Evil. Be a Light that grows bright against the hate.  Be a Light that illuminates the shadows of fear.  Be a Light! Glow fearlessly!

There are things I was taught that have remained in my life since the day the lesson was learned. Looking back, I realized these were all things my Momma taught me.  Today, the young people would call these "Life Hacks" - tips for making life go more smoothly, more efficiently.  Momma's life hacks had a bit more oomph to them, though. They were based on a deep connection to Faith, Hope, and Love. A connection that was lived daily, not simply taught, then forgotten except for one hour or so a week. Here are the top five life hacks learned at Momma's knee: Be nice - it doesn't cost a penny. Be nice, even when others are not being nice to you. Be nice especially to your elders, who may be grumpy or cranky, but you have not lived as long as they have. You do not know the pain and sorrow they carry. Be nice, it can change someone's life. Always share what you have with others. You are never too poor or too rich to share when others are in need. Bu...

On this day, thirty plus years ago, I became a mother for the second time.  Waking in the early hours this morning, I wondered how best to celebrate my daughter, who is many states away, enjoying family and friends on this auspicious day. Spirit has a way of nudging me when I ponder like this. "Give thanks!" she whispers in my soul, "Give thanks!" Of course!  So, for all my girls, I give thanks. THE BLESSING OF DAUGHTERS Blessed Parent of us all, I lift up my heart and soul to you in eternal gratitude  for the blessing  of daughters! I am rich beyond measure,  because I share in each of their lives. I treasure each smile, each tear, each bump and bruise, each triumph, each broken heart, each joyous event, each question and each bit of wisdom. Thank you for our times together - and our times apart - for those times especially, help us see how precious "together" is. Thank you for our differences, for these differences make us...

Photo Credit (c) 2017 L. M. R. Neas Rachel Carson said, "One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'"  I thought of this yesterday, as my cousins and I were wandering through my gardens, soaked in unexpected sunshine, surrounded in sweet, summer, bird song. Standing in the middle of the lush, verdant, herb and rose scented yard, I thought to myself, "How glorious! How completely delicious this is!" Later, as I sat scanning headlines, I realized just how endangered all this beauty is. The ozone layer keeps thinning. We keep polluting. The bees are dying. Entire species are disappearing. Those in power seem hellbent on destroying the fragile balance for greedy purposes.  Disgusted and heartbroken, I turned off the computer. Immediately, I did what I always do in these times of trouble...lifted my heart to the Divine, praying for some miracle to s...

Photo (c) 2017 L. M. R. Neas "Faith sustains us in the hour when reason tells us that we can not continue, that the whole of our whole lives is without meaning... Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet.  You can travel further with both than you can with just one... That's all that faith requires. That we surrender ourselves to the possibility of hope. For that I'm content." J. Michael Straczynski - Writer, Producer  Consistently, I am amazed at what speaks to me, what brings me inspiration, and/or what brings me peace, after I have asked the Divine one of those "big" questions. Recently, distraught over the world situation coupled with requests from loved ones to pray for those suffering from pain and abuse or for those grieving, I wondered how do we keep going.  More correctly, I asked, "How do we maintain our faith when faced with so much evil, hate and despair?" As a minister, I know Sacred Scripture holds many answers to our ...