Author: evetureknaturephotography@gmail.com

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Just For You

Lord, You said the neatest thing a couple days ago, something I want to acknowledge here. You said I had BOGGED down in blogging, because I was leaving the L out. The Love. I had bogged down by forgetting Love. So what I want to ask You is this: how can that be? I try to focus on love every day, on Your Love, on loving others. How could I have been leaving the L-Love out of this blog?

It’s not that you left out Love when you posted your blogs, it’s that you left out Love when you thought about your blogs. Your blogging became more of a burden or a duty than a joy. And we talked about this–you began diligently and faithfully and persistently seeking Me…for others. And then, only for others. Thinking you were acting out of a sense of need, you forgot your own heart’s need, and in that forgetting, you forgot Mine as well. You got so intent and so focused on helping everyone else find their connection with Me, you neglected your own. You actually let yourself slip back into the old pattern of thinking that I was primarily interested in using you, in having you be an example for others, and not primarily interested in YOU. In every person on the planet, as an individual, unique, YOU, that I love, that I cherish, that I long to be connected to. Not a link in a long chain but a precious, singular child. That is what you forgot. You forgot how much I delight to spend time with YOU.

Think about your favorite moments with your son, with the grandkids. What memories stand out most? What kinds of future experiences would you long for? Aren’t they all about connection? What about your friends? Same thing. You long to connect–I made you that way. It is who you are, at your core. At your foundation. I long to connect. It is Who I Am. Part of the reason for the hiatus in your posting daily was to get you back into a routine of hearing from Me daily, for yourself. To renew your own joy and your own sense of clarity and direction. To hear from Me not only about all the people you love, but hear Me whisper to “just you.”

You so often say, when friends answer the phone, it’s just me. You laugh, they laugh, but here is what they hear, and what I often hear as well. You still devalue who you are, in their eyes and in Mine. The L-Love I want you to put back into your blog, back into everything you do and think and say and feel, is not My Big L Love for the world, great as that is. It is not even your love for Me, great as that is. It is My Big L Love for YOU. It is the Big L Love for you I would have, even if you were the only person alive on the planet. The sun would rise, the moon would wax and wane, the stars would spin and the creatures would sense your nearness, all for you. I would sustain the universe for any one of you, “just” for that one. Just for you. You always think, for all of us. Yes. But I want you to begin to think, for EACH of us. And that means, not “just you” but “just for you.”

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Winds of Change

So, Lord, what I most want to talk about today is this. I sensed the need to change, not the direction, but the rhythm of this blog. To change from a regular  pace of daily postings to a more syncopated rhythm, not as regular. But that threw me off balance. Not having the regular schedule of posting caused all sorts of emotional reactions I did not expect. I am still dealing with those, and not very well, I might add.

One issue you have, that many humans have, is thinking once everything is in place and set, that nothing will change–but everything changes, all the time! The daily pattern was to help you realize I will speak every day. When you quit posting daily, you quit expecting Me to speak to you daily. That is why you have these feelings of discontent, disconnect, and disappointment. You slipped back into old patterns of thinking and behavior, which for you includes a lot of isolation, as self-protection. But I Am Still Right Here.

There are folks whose life circumstances suddenly thrust them into a position where their rhythms change, even their rhythm and pattern of their regular contact with Me–like the illness of a family member, or a schedule change in their job–and that can throw them badly off balance just when they need Me more than ever. Even traveling or visiting family can disrupt the regular routine.

They–and you–need to remember I Am Flexible. Yes, yes, I Change Not–in My Character, in My Goodness. In My Love. But look around you! Your world, the universe, is changing second by second! Babies are born, butterflies emerge, trees fall. The winds of change are blowing all the time. I, the God of All, Am Present with you through all the changes, with My Unchanging Love. That is your foundation, your bedrock, no matter what changes come. Even if those changes seem to disrupt your times of quiet contact with Me, I still Am. I Still Am.

Do you perceive the double meaning? I Continue. And I Am the Still Small Voice whispering inside you, available in every circumstance no matter how chaotic. Part of the reason for the rhythm change here, in posting, is for you to grow in being able to hear My Voice anywhere, anytime, in any circumstance. Those who read this need to know this too–and in their own experience, not just vicariously through you. What you most need right now is the Peace, the Stillness, that comes from Me as Still I Am. So breathe that in. And release all those thoughts that you have to do this all by yourself. Silly little one!

I do feel a little silly, God. Thinking that. I mean, realizing that this is what I was thinking–haven’t I learned anything yet?!?

You have learned much and grown much. Mostly you just need reminding of that. This was a good reminder lesson for you.

It didn’t feel very good. Learning it, I mean. Or re-learning it.

(Gently). So what have you learned?

That You are I Am. And You never leave us. You are right here. Even if or when we don’t understand, You are right here. You are always right here. 

Indeed. I Am.

 

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Dimly and Darkly

Lord, when I started this blog, actually before that, when I was thinking about starting this blog, as we, You and I, talked on paper in my morning journaling time about this, I said, I need a title. And then days later this verse came to mind, about seeing through a glass, dimly. Or darkly–depending on the translation. Well, that is how I have been feeling lately, seeing through a glass dimly. Or darkly–depending on how I translate my experience and my feelings through the glass of, what? The glass, the mirror, of what I know to be true about You? The glass of the current state of the world? What nature tells me, every time I go outside? I really need to think about my mirrors, Lord, how true they are. And what I am mirroring myself, back out into the world. Here is what I know for sure–no matter what reels and rocks in my private world, or in the larger world, You are Good. All the Time. So thank You for that. So all of this begs the question: sometimes I feel as if I see more clearly, or hear more clearly, than other times. What changes? And how can I, how can anyone, shift back? Because lately it, meaning our connection or my perception of it, at least, has seemed dimmer. And I miss it.

I miss you, too.

What?

I miss you, too. I miss your spark and your spunk and your, as you call it, stubborn optimism.

What rattled me, Lord? What set me off?

Grief, mostly. One of those rouge waves, as you like to call them.

But this seemed different somehow. Not exactly depression but…but more of a doggie-downer attitude on my part. More, well, pessimistic! Hence the dimly and darkly part of the metaphor.

What do you love best about the dark? About nighttime?

Gosh, there are so many things! I love the quiet. I love night noises, the little bugs and frogs and nature sounds. I love the stars. I love the moon, in all its phases. I love a night breeze and the sound it makes through the trees. I can’t see it but I can hear it and I can feel it. I love the promise of real rest that we associate with night. I love…fireflies! I actually SAW some, first time in years, right here in Colington! About a month ago, right at dusk. That was awesome. 

And what do you love best about fog, about seeing dimly?

Gosh, again, so many things! I love the hush. I love the muted effect, on both sight and sound. I love what I read recently that another photographer expressed, about how fog actually brings clarity because it brings what is closest to you in sharper focus by eliminating distractions in the background. I love that too, how it isolates and simplifies the landscape, how it distills the myriad of choices, look here, notice over there, into just a few, or sometimes into just one. I find it serene and ethereal and both relaxing and empowering. I just love it. 

So you have just spent a few joyous minutes outlining some of your loves of both darkly and dimly. Notice how neither of your descriptions mentioned anything to be afraid of. You didn’t say you were afraid of the dark, or worried you would get lost in the fog. You saw only the beauty, the good gifts, in both.

Yes, that’s true.

But when you started writing, you were thinking of dimly and darkly in negative ways, implying that they obscured rather than revealed, that they hid Me rather than revealed another aspect of My nature. What if you applied your descriptions about dark and fog to how you have been thinking and feeling lately? What if you said, gee God, I am sensing fog, I am sensing mist, I am sensing the hour just after sunset or just before dawn. What is it You would reveal to me through these special, and yes, even sacred, moments?

Gosh, God, I NEVER thought of that. Not once. I never thought of applying my feelings of joy and even anticipation that I have in those scenic conditions to my being in Your Presence, to my relationship with You. You mean…

I mean, when you think you may be in the dark, or confused, or lost, or unsure where your path is, what if instead you began to notice what is right in front of you? What if you just looked for the next step, one step? What if you began to tune in, in a deeper way, to the Quiet within what seems like Silence, and found there My voice singing to you in new ways? What if the Music of the Spheres was opened to you in what you first thought was darkness and silence? What if you began to experience the radiance of a brilliant moonrise, or the star-studded Milky Way, or even those darting flying pinpoints of light you call fireflies, as new, radiantly brilliant revelations of I Am With you Always. Do you notice the moon more in a cloudless dark sky or in the middle of the afternoon? You notice it more at fullness, in a dark sky, of course. Much of what you experience really depends on your attitude and perception.

Come and play. Let this season you are thinking of as “dim” and “dark” reveal nuances of sight and sound of My Presence in ways you never experienced before. Let’s look for new expressions while we are exploring! Let’s make this an adventure worth sharing. Every so often I have to ask you this question, so let Me ask you again: do you think I have run out of ways to surprise you? To delight you? To woo you? To draw you closer, once again, to Me? Do you think you have fully explored all that I, the Great God, Am? And all that I Am able to do and be with, and for, and through, you? If yes, then your vision is indeed dim and dark, and you need gentle enlightenment. If no, then you are already beginning to see more in the dark than you think. For just as your earthly eyes adjust in the night so that you can perceive more and more light, more and more detail, more and more stars, so will the perception of your spirit adjust. I Am not trying to hide from you! Just the opposite! I Am trying to reveal more of Myself to you, and in a different way, so that everywhere, and any-when, and in whatever circumstance you ever find yourself, you will know, first, by experience, I Am There.

 

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Singing In The Rain

God, it’s raining. Again. As if You didn’t already know that. As if You didn’t already know that, honestly, we are over it. Tempers are fraying. Even the most good-natured among us would like, if I may be so bold, some good nature. Meaning, some good weather to be out in nature! And the folks who have worked hard all year long, 51 weeks, for one week to be here, just to try to relax a little before going back to their daily grind, don’t their needs matter?

In light of major disasters, like past hurricanes or present wildfires or famine or civil war or or or, I realize this sounds petty: God, it’s raining. But if I have learned anything at all about You, it is that I can talk to You about anything at all. So what I want to talk to You about now is keeping a sunny disposition when the weather is anything but. I keep slugging down coffee and keep feeling sluggish. The sun broke through for a few minutes this morning, and the rain abated long enough for me to take packages to the shipper. And I am grateful for every little respite, I am. But am I wrong to want more than a little respite? And not just for me, but for our visitors too? Am I wrong to talk to You about such a petty little thing as rain?

What did I talk about when I was with you? Crops and harvest. Housekeeping and lost coins and wandering sheep. Workers and wages. Rifts between brothers. In short, all the stuff that made up daily life of that time–and yours. And what did I scold? Hypocrisy. Greed. Unfairness. Pride and arrogance. I heard your heart when you told that visitor, who said to you, but I guess rain is good for business, that you would rather the sun shine and folks choose to shop than come in because they have so little else to do.

God, I just can’t help it. I keep thinking how I would feel, if this was my vacation. As I said earlier, it’s hard enough living here and missing being outside!

So what exactly are you asking?

I guess I am asking what I always am asking, which is for mercy. For compassion. For folks’ needs to matter, and that they can enjoy a vacation, a rest. You talked about rest, too, Lord. About our need for it. Goodness knows You have talked to me often enough about it!

You have let your vision become too narrow and dark again, little one. You have–without realizing it–been listening to the poisonous thoughts of those who disbelieve I Am involved in your world. You have let the world’s sorrows choke out your joy. What did I declare? That I had come that you might have fullness of joy, have abundant life! There are those who do not believe or receive those words as true at all. There are others who transport those words into a future heavenly reality and resign themselves to a trudging existence of drudgery here, all the while imagining some future reward as incentive to keep plodding on. But I did not ask any of you to keep plodding on. I did not say you would never know sorrow or trouble, but I also promised My Presence and I promised plenty of blessing for this life. Otherwise, why would I have given you this life? This earth? This universe? Just to test you? I already know you. Just to prove to you your weakness? What good is that? What kind of Parent would devise tests just to show up his own children? That is abuse, not parental love.

It is true your earth, the earth I envisioned in creation, is way out of balance. And it is true that imbalance is creating consequences I never intended and most humans could never foresee. But that does not mean I Am not still able to recreate and renew.

And right then, bam! No warning! The power goes out, the computer shuts off, my backup power supply starts squealing…

And what did you do?

Ultimately I hit the reset button.

Ah, yes, the reset button. And what was I just saying to you, when the power went off?

That I should sing. That You wanted to sing over me, sing the rainbow over me. All the colors. 

Yes, you need all My colors. Your world does.

So how do You think we should deal with disappointments, God? I am not even talking real tragedies. I am talking about disappointments, the kind that are like a nor’easter, that wear down the spirit with steady relentless pounding. The kind that erode our joy, as You said. How are we supposed to react, other than to suck it up and keep on plodding?

What happens when you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths? What do you feel?

Calmer. Tired, but calmer. And, unexpectedly, happier. 

Yes, I Am singing over you with Joy. I Am singing over you with Peace.

God, it is still raining. But I feel better. 

You see? A few minutes, deliberately in My Presence, makes all the difference. Now you can gain a little perspective, a little fortitude, a little energy. Now you will be more ready for the sun when it comes.

Thank You, God.

Don’t go.

Huh?

Don’t go. I have not finished singing. I still have Abundance and Laughter and Soul-Ease to sing over you. I still have open doors and open fields and open skies to sing over you. Don’t go. Sit, close your eyes, lift up your head and breathe. Let Me Sing.

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Walk by Walking

I had a wonderful day this weekend. I was out three times! Dawn, mid-afternoon on the dunes, and then dusk. I didn’t post a blog; I slept in, I enjoyed some quiet, I worked some, I walked some, I played some. How did I feel come Monday morning? Sleepy…but so refreshed. It’s a week since my mini retreat. Obstacles are blocks to power, our retreat director said. Like a frayed electrical line. Or like–as with the long jewelry case–a toggle switch, hidden from sight under the toe kick–turned, bumped off. Sheesh! And a simple enough fix. Let the Power flow! So what would You say?

Let the Peace flow. Most of your issues and difficulties stem from agitation. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring–nobody does. You need to follow what you told your friend recently, what Joel Osteen wrote, that you can drive a long way at night seeing only the next few feet ahead of you in your headlights. You can’t see the whole road, around each curve–even in daylight! And it’s an illusion to think you can. You have to trust that each step is leading you on your journey. You have to keep driving, keep walking, keep moving forward. If your heart is truly to walk with Me, then the light you are walking by is knowing I Am with you and I will lead you. You won’t stray far from the trail.

Speaking of trails, moment by moment you are making decisions that help to create the day you are going to have, today and tomorrow. It is not so much that there is only one perfect narrow path designed specifically step by step for your life. It is that when you commit to living a life centered in Me, you are increasingly more sensitive to the nudges of wind, to the nuances of sights or sounds that catch your attention. Your possibilities actually increase rather than decrease. Ah, that got your attention!

A life centered on Love and Peace can have many outworkings, not just one. Just don’t forget all the fruits of My Presence–love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness and gentleness–are meant for you as well. This is not an Either/Or way. This is a Both/And way. “They” thrive and you thrive. That’s the model.

When you are agitated, in worry-mode, stressed out about particular circumstances, you have frozen yourself in time. You have stopped walking. You have forgotten Who is walking with you. Pause, take a few deep breaths, and check your soul’s compass. Is the path you are following helping to build My Kingdom-Come within you and those around you? If the answer is yes, then take the next step. If the answer is no, course-correct and take the next step. It truly is as simple as that, to abide in Me. Stay close, stay in focus, and enjoy the journey.

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Retreat

So, Lord, I have just spent the equivalent of two days—an evening, a day, a long morning—in a mini retreat, with eight other folks similarly engaged. There was such good material, most of which bubbled up inside each one of us as we individually and collectively responded to each other’s insights, questions, griefs, fears, longings. We were in “it”—this business of a daily life, spiritually centered—together, and in a way we don’t, or I should say, I don’t, despite my longing, often practice in the daily all by myself.

So my question, or one of my questions, is this: given a sense of calling, given experiences that feel to me like being invited into a deeper sense of Your Presence, why would I, why would anyone turn away from that invitation? Here is a follow-on question: despite what might be my fears around that invitation (what will others think? How will those I love react?), how can I live more fully aware and engaged? Our director said, over and over, Just Breathe. How do you feel right now in your body?

God, I think I know why I keep being drawn to bicycles. It’s the balancing act motif. Live connected to You, live connected to others—but not in a way that diminishes either Your Voice or my own—and live connected to myself. That is the challenge, to keep present, God, with all that is, and still hold to, or allow myself to be held by, and in, Your Love. That’s it, isn’t it! It feels like an aha. To allow myself to simultaneously be present to what is happening around me and at the same instant, to allow myself to be held by and in Your Love. Bingo. And I don’t. I mean, I do, but then I slip. I fall. I tumble into trying to fix everything around me (as if I even could, or as if it would be wise if I could), or I stumble over what is happening around me because I have closed my eyes and ears if it seems too painful or hard to bear, and neither one of those is the Third Way, of being present in a way that still allows Your Love to flow and center me in that Love.

All this is really heady, heavy stuff. But I love it. I love taking time to acknowledge it, and talk about it, and practice Your Presence, and write about it, and go out with my camera in hand, into a world I view as one You made initially, and look for evidence that You are still present here.

You said a lot this weekend, and some of it was beyond words. But is there anything You would say now, that I can share here?

Why don’t you write about what you saw and experienced when you went outside at sunset by yourself.

Ok, well, I think I saw the Green Flash. I had seen an afterflash of white light, once, just after the sun went down, and that was a couple years ago. But last evening as the sun disappeared, and there was a thin haze layer right at the horizon so the last glimpse was ever so slightly above it,I clearly experienced a shift of color in my perception from yellow to green and then gone. It doesn’t exactly show on the photograph; it looks more yellow, but if I desaturate all the yellow there is still a tonality present in the flash than in the streaks of color in the clouds above. And then, when I sensed it was time to go, and I got in my car, there were three deer that came out of the trees on the other side of the road and walked out into the marsh. One of those was a buck in velvet, with just-growing antler. Whether they would have come if I had stayed, I doubt. But it was a special treat to see them.

And what did you ask for at the beginning of your retreat?

Well, I asked for an experience of You. Not just words. Something beyond words, something sensory. I asked for clarity. I asked for Vision, as in Vision Quest. I wanted insight.

How do you feel right now?

Very calm. Relaxed. As if I could take a nap! Really, I feel drained in the best possible sense.

So why don’t you?

Why don’t I what?

Why don’t you nap? I cleared your calendar for the weekend, and that included today. That includes this afternoon. Do you remember the scripture, He gives to His Beloved even in sleep? Well, that goes for you too. All the while you were there to receive for yourself, you were also holding sacred space for those around you. You deliberately set about to do that work, to be a silent assisting partner. Now it is time for Eve to rest, and simply, merely, only receive. Not receive AND give. Just receive. You rarely do that fully awake, but in this semi-drowsy state, I can impart much to you—much healing, much insight, much strength. Everything you need, I can impart. Are you willing to lay down your need to appear strong and just receive? If you can answer yes, then go take a nap. And trust that everything in your world will be okay, while you rest and receive.

 

 

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First Thoughts

Lord, Julia Cameron counsels coming to the page first thing, with first thoughts. Unfiltered, uncensored and not yet influenced by day’s events, first thoughts reveal so much that might otherwise go unsaid. I know their importance, yet I don’t always get here first thing. Sometimes this seems like the last thing! Sometimes it’s intermittent, these conversations, all during the day. 

And what do you find, in those intermittent moments?

That You are always, always here. Always present. I was going to say always waiting, but that is not exactly it–is it?

How many times have you had the experience of reconnecting with an old friend or getting in touch with a close friend you’ve not been able to see for a while, and you pick up right where you left off, as if no time had passed?

That happens a lot, actually.

You see, since I Am Timeless, there is really no “waiting” in your sense of the word. I Am always present to you and with you. All you lack is awareness. I Am Now, all the time and for all time and beyond time. So you are not keeping Me waiting. You are, however, sometimes keeping your own heart waiting. Why do you do that?

I don’t know, God! Why do I do that? It’s not that I don’t think time spent with You is important. And I am not taking Your Presence for granted, I hope–or am I?

Taking for granted can mean two different things. One devalues a relationship while the other realizes how precious a gift that relationship is. Which do you think you do?

Honestly, I do think I consider our relationship a precious gift, something You have granted, and also something I can always count on. When I stop to think, I know in my heart and mind You are always there. I mean, always here. 

And how does that assurance make you feel?

Safe. I type that and I pause. So my life has had its share of scary moments, God, truthfully. And I think of the old joke, no one gets out alive. But walking with You, that makes all the difference. It does. Maybe being an only child has made me more sensitive or more aware of how precious our connection is, especially with my folks gone. I know no matter what, You are with me. Your presence has gotten me through lots of challenges, and I guess I just count on the fact of it now, that You will continue to be right here.

As I said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Not even when hard things happen?

Especially not then. Not ever. But especially not then.

You know, when I think of first thoughts in that context, I don’t even think “thoughts.” I think more “feelings” and the feeling is the same as a great big hug. All the feelings that I associate with giving or receiving a hug with someone I love–presence, comfort, gladness, laughter, relief–that is what I think of when I think of being with You. So I guess the overarching thought, first and last, is Love. Love and Gratitude. Thank You, God.

You know Pete loves you, and you know you love him, as a reality that is as much a part of your being as your breath is. Love Me the same way. Count on My Love in the same way. You don’t always have to talk, and you don’t always have to hear Me in words. But you can always have the experience you just described, of awareness of My Presence with you deep in your heart, not just at any given moment, but at all moments. Then there really is no need for First Thoughts, per se, for all your thoughts will be colored and shaped by your being always with Me. That is how transformation occurs, first moment by moment and then in flashes of insight that illuminate all moments thereafter.

Wow, God, I can sort of see this possibility, of complete and continuing awareness. That WOULD be transformative. I am sitting very still, watching the wind outside my window lift and dip the tree branches. I see through a glass…like the scripture quote that gave this blog its title. If I were to step beyond the glass, I would feel the wind. Right now looking out the window I “know” the wind is blowing but I cannot feel it or experience it myself. I know it as fact, but…but…I am struggling to understand and express in words. But I am not living in the wind. I am insulated from its effects. I don’t want to be insulated from Your Love and Your Presence. I don’t want to just know it. I do want to live it. Live in it. Live aware. Live Alive. Again, God, thank You. 

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Relationship

Lord, it’s morning. I slept weird. Please, please, please, what would You say?

You don’t have to beg. I’m right here. I never moved.

But…

But what? You think your only value to Me is as a servant? As a scribe? What about Love? What about, I love you. Not, I love what you are doing for Me, which is the same as saying, I love Me–but, I love you.

That’s why I want you to stop picking your fingers–I love your fingers, I love everything about you. I made the little quirks that make you who you are. I’m proud of you, I bless you and I love you. I’m for you, I’m with you, I’m in you. And then, last, I’m through you. You’ve reversed the order. The order is important. It’s progressive in understanding and experience and maturity. I Am not looking for servants, but friends, remember? Friends share with one another. Friends talk things out.

Friends ask, what can I do to help? Friends hear your need and offer solutions, just like your friend did yesterday, and just like you did, in your last conversation. Let Me be your Friend again–the One you can tell anything to, the One with helpful advice. Not just your Lord, which for you is a loaded word that segues into Master and which puts distance between us. Ours is a different relationship.

I came to earth in part to model that different relationship and in part to encourage different types of relationships between humans, relationships based on an idea of equality as Children of One God. That is why Paul could write, there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus. He was trying to point to the equality and worth of every human being. In that society, free Jewish males were at the top of the food chain. Slaves, non-Jewish “gentiles” and females were at the bottom. In your society, there are similar distinctions. Landed white property owners became the Free. Workers, even non-slave workers, became the servant class.

Master/servant, boss/worker, free/not-free is pervasive, all around you. You still struggle with believing this duality is from Me, when I came to abolish it once and for all.

You have been and continue to be a “good and faithful servant.” But I want more. Go sit by your Pete and come and sit stream side with Me. Let’s renew our vows; let’s be more than Lord and servant. Let’s be Friends. Let’s Love one another. That is the foundation for loving anyone else, you know. You love Me–now receive My Love, in all its manifestations and gifts.

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The Sun Also Rises

So I’ve talked about the shop, the business, which I do a lot. Can I, may I, can we, You and I, talk about our country? God, we are so different. So diverse.

I chose 12 Disciples for a reason; actually, for many reasons. One reason was to ensure that among My followers were represented different walks of life, different points of view, different backgrounds, different talents and expertise.  What united them was each one’s individual commitment to Me, and their willingness to–gradually for some, more suddenly for others–be transformed into a team with common core values and common goals. Your nation has forgotten its founding and its foundation. You can celebrate and honor diversity while maintaining common values. What did St. Paul write?

There are varieties of gifts but One Body and One Spirit giving those gifts. Something like that.

What else?

That each part of the Body is necessary. No one part can say to another, I have no need of you. Oh! And when one part of the Body hurts, the whole Body hurts.

Yes, that is what your country has forgotten. It is what humanity as a whole has forgotten, not only in America, but all around the globe. It is what the Church has largely forgotten as well. Each seeks his own instead of seeking to be his or her own part in contributing to the health and beauty of the Body as a whole.

So God, there are some folks who say, in effect, oh well, things are getting worse just like God said they would, as if, I don’t know, as if we are supposed to just accept that. As if there is nothing anyone can do. As if it doesn’t even matter. So what can one person do?

You can stand. You can speak. You don’t have to shout, necessarily, although some may be compelled to shout. For your part, which is what you are really asking, your challenge is to not lose heart, not lose hope.

It’s hard, God.

I know, little one. But think of this–look out your window. Is the sun shining?

It is, Lord. In fact, it’s the solstice. The first day of summer. The longest day.

So as long as the sun rises on your world, this is your evidence that you are still called to love, called to pray, called to give, called to believe. Work while it is still day, as Scripture says. The Light is not vanquished–and remember what I said when despair threatens you. Light shines in darkness and the darkness will never overcome it. So Shine! Brighten the corner where you are!

Ok. But, God?

Yes?

What about those children? I know this whole situation breaks Your heart. You Who said, let the little children come to Me. You held them, and blessed them. Can You help us come to our senses, come to a place of compassion, and at the least, whether asylum is granted in individual cases or not, please reunite parents and children? And please heal their little minds from the trauma they are experiencing now, from the separation? We treat rescue dogs better than we are treating these little ones.

The anguish and angst you are feeling right now is just a tiny fraction of what I Am feeling. Do you remember, Jesus wept? Not only over Lazarus. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, too, lamenting. How often I would have gathered you under My care, like a chicken gathering her chicks, but you refused. This is just one more example of that refusal.

You see, Jesus still weeps. Yes, I the Lord God Almighty, still grieve. I weep with those who weep. I grieve as individuals reap crops of bitterness and hatred and prejudice and war. My grief will not end until humanity’s grief ends.

Be assured I Am working and calling every day, calling each one to come Home to the best of humanity, to come take their places in the Light, to commit to a life of Loving. You cannot love God and hate your neighbor. So the first wave of change must come from those who say they love Me. Don’t pray just for your political leaders. Pray for this who call themselves Mine–no matter their style of worship. Pray that they will actually and accurately manifest My Heart. Call to the North, the South, the East, and the West. Call all My People to rejoin the Team of Loving Compassion. You know how to Call. Call forth Peace, call forth Love, call forth Justice, call forth Compassion, call forth Unity. You see, there is much good you can do, with a simple heartfelt Call.

Thank You, God. Thank You, Lord. Thank You. 

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Breaking Point

I am going to be, not exactly (I hope) taking a break from blogging here as much as uploading less frequently than daily.

The time commitment of running the shops in the summer, particularly on nights I close, is making the process of doing daily entries suddenly a strain on my most important earthly relationship, that with Pete. I didn’t realize how much it upset him until earlier this evening.

I know God knows my heart. While my talking with Him certainly won’t diminish, I cannot promise what I started out promising in my initial understanding of this blog: that it would be a daily posting of our conversations, in hopes of prompting readers to begin dialogs of your own.

I admit, too, that I have felt lost this evening, wondering what to say, or if to say anything at all. But I have more than 1,100 of us signed up to subscribe now. So I owe you the full truth.

I will post again as I can.