December Days

 New Year's soul food...YUM!

Monkey-Boy

 Drama Princesses!

(Thanks, Mimi)

 Time-out is soooooo boring.

Sawyer assists...1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

On to Easter!

"...the revolution of tenderness,

which was released into common consciousness

at the death of Jesus,

(is) 'the virus of the Gospel'.”

In every age, denomination, and culture, only a few understood the message. By grace and conversion, they realized that they could no longer project their inner violence outward, either creating victims or playing the victim themselves for their own empowerment. They see the only way to be victim in a generative and healing way is as Jesus did, by forgiving and releasing his crucifiers and himself.

The Gospel demands a great deal of us. It calls us to a perennially unpopular and unselfish path. Little wonder Jesus said, “The world’s going to hate you” (John 15:18-19). When you can no longer play the game of judging, labeling, and punishing others, you will quickly become the outsider at most every cocktail party you attend. But Jesus has taught us how to hold the pain of the world until it transforms and resurrects us. This dangerous virus is what Jesus calls “the hidden leaven” inside the Gospel (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20), the resurrecting power that will keep the world from its ordinary path toward self-destruction.

What cleverness and courage it took to place this feast of Stephen on the day following Christmas so we could not miss the Gospel’s direct implication and could quickly move beyond all sentimentality. Any full Incarnation will inevitably lead to passion, death, and resurrection. It is a certain progression.   ~R. Rohr

Christmas Bits 2016...

And love showed up in so many ways!

Christmas Present

It’s difficult to manifest what you want in life if you are continually harboring the idea that it won’t ever happen. Effortlessly fulfilling your heart’s desires generally requires a more positive mindset—an attitude of expectancy at the very least.

But how do you get beyond an underlying sense that the eventual fulfillment of your desire is in doubt? One answer is to take a baby step, and just begin to focus on the possibility of your desire being fulfilled. Years ago I came across a good technique for doing just that. It was in the book, “Ask and It Is Given,” which came out six months after I published “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

The technique is simple. You just ask yourself one basic question: “Wouldn’t it be nice if my desire was fulfilled?” More specifically, you might ask: “Wouldn’t it be nice if I reclaimed the healthy weight I had 10 years ago?” “Wouldn’t it be nice if I received the perfect job offer this month?” “Wouldn’t it be nice if we moved into our dream house this year?”

The beauty of reflecting on this question is threefold:

First, it shifts your attention away from what you believe is impeding the fulfillment of your desire and directs it toward the possibility your desire’s fulfillment.

Second, it takes any feelings of discouragement or frustration you might be experiencing and replaces them with better feelings—“nice” ones.

And third, it is a very gentle approach to focusing on your desire, so you are less likely to slip into a demanding or controlling frame of mind. The details for fulfilling your desire are left up to The Divine, which is always the most beneficial way to manifest what you want.

As helpful as this technique is, though, it is still a baby step—a step in the right direction, but a baby step nonetheless. Once you accept the possibility that your desire can be fulfilled, you are ready for the next step—a bigger step. That step is to acknowledge the absolute certainty of your desire’s fulfillment.

Again, there is a helpful technique for doing that. Only this time it is not from the book, “Ask and It Is Given.” It was created by a friend of mine named Joanne Patek, who has helped numerous people accomplish their goals and realize their dreams by using this powerful, self-directed question: “Won’t it be wonderful when my desire is fulfilled with ease, and I give thanks?” Whether your desire is for a wounded relationship to be healed or a long-lost heirloom to be found, I think you can see the superiority in the way this question is worded.

For one thing, the fulfillment of your desire is no longer a question of “if.” It is now just a matter of “when.” And that sense of surety puts you in a very powerful position to manifest what you want. Why? Because when you are absolutely certain your desire will be fulfilled, you automatically make the kind of choices and take the kind of actions that lead to that fulfillment. If, instead, your mind is conflicted or full of doubt, many of your decisions can be self-sabotaging.

Notice, too, the phrase, “with ease.” Many desires can be fulfilled through struggle, strain, perseverance, or pain. But why forecast that kind of difficulty for yourself? Other than having to practice a little patience, you want your desire to be fulfilled effortlessly, right?

And how do you want to feel when your desire is fulfilled? Don’t you want to feel “wonderful?” Said another way, don’t you want to be full of wonder?  Don’t you want to marvel at the manner in which your desire manifested? Sure you do! And it’s only fitting to be filled with a sense of awe and wonderment. Because when you ask yourself “Won’t it be wonderful when . . . ?” you are—in a way—invoking a miracle.

When you ask yourself “Won’t it be wonderful when . . . ?” you get the sense that the fulfillment of your desire is not something that is going to require an undue amount of planning, hard work, and determination on your part. No, you get the sense that a Higher Power will be orchestrating the fulfillment of your desire, and little—if anything—will be required of you.

When you ask yourself “Won’t it be wonderful when . . . ?” you are acknowledging that you have Divine assistance in this life, and you are fully anticipating the moment when you will “give thanks” for that celestial support . . . and that’s assuming you haven’t already given thanks in advance, showing just how confident you are that your desire is going to be fulfilled.

So, my friends, do you have a desire you want to fulfill? Do you have a goal you want to accomplish or a dream you want to realize? If the fulfillment of your desire seems doubtful, then take a step in the right direction by entertaining the possibility of it happening. But don’t stop there. Take the next step, as well, by fully anticipating it happening—easily! Won’t it be wonderful when it does? You bet it will. It will be wonderful, indeed!

Steven

© 2015 by Steven Lane Taylor

www.rowrowrow.com

Steven Lane Taylor LLC

48 Hours

Apparently age matters...

The Rare Sawyer

"Sawyer Emmy Craft", made from Keurig packing...

Aunt Susan sent fixings for sugar cookies and skillet brownie.

Spoons are flying!

He's up there!

Beautiful classic carrousel at the mall...

Santaree shows up at Emmy's!

Heavenly!

Heaven: The Home of Love

Only love can move effectively across boundaries and across cultures. Love is a very real energy, a spiritual life force that is much more powerful than ideas or mere thoughts. Love is endlessly alive, always flowing toward the lower place, and thus life-giving for all, exactly like water. In fact, there is no form of life that does not need water. No wonder water is such a universal spiritual symbol.

When you die, you are precisely the capacity you have developed to give and to receive love. Your recognition of this is your own “final judgment” of yourself, which means you become responsible for what you now see—not shamed or even rewarded, but just deeply responsible. Not surprisingly, this seems to be the universal testimony of people who have gone through near-death experiences—and returned to tell about them.

If you have not received or will not give this gift of love to others, your soul remains tied to a small, empty world which is probably what we mean by hell. God can only give love to those who want it.

If you still need to grow in love and increase your capacity to trust Love, God makes room for immense growth surrounding the death experience itself, which is probably what we mean by purgatory. Time is a mental construct of humans. Why would growth be limited to this part of our lives? God and the soul live in an eternal now.

If you are already at home in love, you will easily and quickly go to the home of love, which is surely what we mean by heaven. There the growth never stops and the wonder never ceases. If life is always change and growth, eternal life must be infinite possibility and growth!

So by all means, every day, and in every way, we must choose to live in love—it is mostly a decision—and even be eager to learn the ever deeper ways of love—which is the unearned grace that follows from the decision!

I can only end with Pope Francis’ plea and question from “The Joy of the Gospel”: “So what are we waiting for?” [1]

Gateway to Silence:
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Little Baby - Big Plan

Love: Jesus' Plan

I’d like to give a simplified summary of what seems to me to be Jesus’ foundational worldview and plan:

God can be trusted. God is like a loving Father or Mother who is involved in our lives and our world. So do not be afraid.

Divine Love has the power to effect lasting and real change. Alignment with such truth is to live under the “Reign of God.” The simple and pure motivation for all morality and religion is simply the imitation of God who is love.

We are transported to this Reign of God through a purifying journey into powerlessness and back. Those who have not gone on such a journey will often misuse divine power. So Jesus taught it directly, walked it through himself, and then invited us to trust this Paschal Mystery in ourselves.

Therefore a disciple needs to learn several lessons:

• To refuse total allegiance (“idolatry”) to all false power, while still working around and with the power structure in service to justice and love.
• To refuse to idealize one’s private self, which props itself up by myths of importance, control, power, money, and wealth.
• To offer ourselves trustfully to a much larger pattern, because our lives are not about us!

The new world order, where love and true power work together, is described by Jesus as a “wedding banquet.” He uses images of meals to illustrate a world that is good, joy-filled, trustworthy, relational, communal, shared, and still local and small-scale or what he calls “where two or three are gathered in my name” (Matthew 18:20).

Gateway to Silence:
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
~R. Rohr

Funny Nativity: Sing Like No One Is Listening!

All aboard!

Marriage is a huge undertaking.

Of course, we don't really know that when we're standing at the altar.

If we did, we probably would be cowering in a corner somewhere,

unable to imagine that we could and would give ourselves

to something so unpredictable, complicated, and

just darn hard to do, with grace,

...on a daily basis.

But for those of us who bought the ticket,

stayed the course,

rode the train all the way to the station,

there is a perspective that cannot be taught;

it can only be experienced.

With every bumpy rail, screeching brake,

fast turn, and dark tunnel,

there is the thought

(if we're honest)

that perhaps we just need to get off this train.

In fact, we may even do so from time to time,

at stations where we can step away,

catch our breath,

get a grip.

And yet,

when that whistle invites us to step aboard once again,

amazingly, we do.

We get right back on the train,

each time with a new and greater understanding

of the ride we're actually saying yes to.

We get back on because by now we know the ride is worth it.

There's the incredible scenery out the windows,

the lovely folks we encounter along the way,

and the adventure of travelling with a companion

who also makes that daring move

to get right back on,

time after time, 

with us.

It's my travel-companion I miss today.

It's all the things I knew I'd miss if I ever stayed off the train.

It's why I...we...chose to get right back on for

45 years, 364 days.

And now I know, beyond a doubt,

it was indeed worth it!

Anniversary

I love this picture of us.

Time heals...dust settles...love rises...

nothing but love.

(December 21st - "the longest night of the year")

45 years, 364 days!

Love is a decision...

Disciples: Those Who Love Others

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. And I’m giving you a new commandment so you’ll know where I am, and who I am: You must love one another. —John 13:33-35 [1]

Brothers sisters, it’s not really what we do that matters; it’s the energy with which we do it. To be in love is to be standing in a different space. Love is not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s obvious who’s in love and who isn’t. When you stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, you live inside of a different energy. You’re not entirely self-preoccupied. You try to care for the world. You say, “I have one life and when I leave here, I want to make sure this world is a little better because I was here.” What might happen if we woke up each day with this intention: “How can my existence on this earth increase the quality of life on this planet?”

Jesus says, “I’ll be with you only a little while longer. So I’m going to leave a sign that I’m still here. I’m going to reveal myself in the presence of loving people.” That’s the only way anyone can know God. If you’ve never let anyone love you, if you’ve never let love flow through you—gratuitously, generously, undeservedly—toward other people, you can’t possibly know who God is. God is just a theory or abstraction. But “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And those who live in love live in God and know God experientially. There’s no other way you can know who God is, and who you are, but to love (Genesis 1:26-27). Take that as an absolute!

God is not saying, “I demand this of you.” Rather, God is saying, “I invite you into this mystery of who you already are in me.” Love is not something you decide to do now and then. Love is who you are! Your basic, foundational existence—created in the image of the Trinity—is love. Remember, Trinity is saying that God is not an isolated divine being; God is a quality of relationship itself, an event of communion, an infinite flow of outpouring. God is an action more than a substance, to put it succinctly.

Love, like forgiveness, is a decision. It’s a decision in your mind and in your heart. And you’d better make it early in the day, because once you’re a few hours into resentment, it’s too late. Already you’re angry at your husband or wife, and you’re upset because the paper boy didn’t deliver your newspaper. You see, when you’re not in love, you’ll use any excuse you can to be unhappy. You’ll use any excuse to be irritated. But you were unhappy before your husband or wife did anything or didn’t do anything, before the paperboy came or didn’t come. You were already unhappy, and they just occasioned it. The exact object for your unhappiness is actually arbitrary and illogical. Unhappiness just needs an object—and so does happiness and love. You have to recognize ahead of time when you are not living in love. This is surely why morning prayer is so important.

~R. Rohr

Gateway to Silence:
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Truly dancing in love...

There is only One Love that will lead and carry you across when you die.
If you are already at home with Love here,
you will quite readily move into the eternal home of Love,
which most of us call heaven.
Death is not a changing of worlds,
as most imagine,
as much as the walls of this world infinitely expanding.
If you get love here,
you have found the eternal home base
and you will easily and naturally live forever.
~R. Rohr

Giving and Receiving