Category: Compassion

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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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Feelings…

So, Lord, it’s back to the feelings. What do I do with the feelings? I guess I can just keep lifting them up to You, not to convince You, but just to be in touch with You about it all. And to ask for these others, to ask for Your Mercy, to continue to ask that they will, each and both, find Your Light, Your Truth. Then, having committed my emotion to You, I can move away from that to focus on something else. I don’t have to carry the heaviness of it. I can hold each one up, acknowledge my love and concern, and then, go stand in Your Golden Light, Your Healing Light, for myself.

Think of everything light does. It shows you your way; it warms you. It prompts growth. In fact, you are nourished by light, as plants convert sunlight, use sunlight, for the processes that lead ultimately to your own food. Be nourished. Be energized. Be healed. Your air, your soil, your water can all be polluted but you can still stand in the circle of My Light and be supernaturally recharged. You can be re-energized to love and re-awakened to peace and re-juvenated in joy. You can be re-oriented to your purpose and direction. Stand in the circle now. Let My Light realign you and bring you your balance. Let it fall on you like rain, transforming your thoughts and your feelings, giving you confidence to stand tall and walk straight in who you are, in Me, and in who I Am, in you.

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Walking Alongside

God, I am so grateful we had the chance to get away, even if the time was short. We saw lots of pelicans—You know how I love them—and rode the beach, looking for dolphin, which we did not see, and shell beds, which we did find at low tide. No big whelks, but a couple small ones, three olive shells, a slough of scallop shells, one large starfish, AND a purple starfish—which brought me right back to our first anniversary on Ocracoke, and finding all those purple starfish 20 years ago. Somewhere in all my film images is a photograph of me, looking delighted, holding a purple starfish. I felt that exact same delight this week!  We heard a couple of our favorite Ocracoke musicians play live at a local restaurant one night, and ate lots of good local seafood while we were there. We saw a full moonrise and a warm, gentle sunset glow over the harbor and sound and sea. And we did relax, I know that.

 This afternoon we continued our sort of laid back vibe with lunch on the deck at Coastal Cantina, and then we came home and sat on our own porch in our own swing, just content. I think what makes vacation idyllic is the absence—if only briefly—from the myriad of responsibilities we both take on when we are home. I say that and pause, listening. Kaylee just grunted, happily napping. The sound of the compressor is cutting off and on, telling me he is in the garage making a frame. Both the washer and dryer have stopped, prompting me to get up and switch loads and start a new one. Just little things, noises of our daily lives. But it felt good to have different sounds in our ears—laughing gulls vying for attention, and the loud horn of the ferry to Cedar Island, and the whoosh of breaking and receding water.

Now back at a sprawling hill of paperwork, I know we are going to need Your help to stay balanced and connected, especially as we, I mean he, works to clear his framing equipment out of our Nags Head spot. I love the busyness of summer, Lord, I do. I just don’t want to get lost in the pace. I keep telling myself, come his birthday, the move will be over and we will settle into yet another new routine. I pray it is gentler for him, God. Still productive—he needs that, needs the sense of that—but gentler. Honestly, I wasn’t sure we would ever get to take another vacation, even a mini vacation away, so these few days were beyond a treat. Which brings me back around to where I began, with Thank You.

 

You easily let yourself become burdened. You take on the angst of others, from family and friends to the world, and it is much too heavy for you. You are not Atlas. Your shoulders were never meant to bear such weight.

What about sympathy and compassion, God? I know You told me before, not to be an empath, per se. But what about compassion?

What else did I say?

Ha, to show mercy with cheerfulness. But You also said to weep with those who weep.

And…

And to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Every day, you can find reasons to weep. But every day, you can also find reasons to rejoice. Living solely in one realm or the other is not only unbalanced, it is not fully honest. But too many in your circle tend to live more focused on the reasons to weep than the reasons to rejoice. Some react with depression, some with cynicism, some with sarcasm, some with despair. Because there are also reasons to rejoice, I Am asking you to react with hope. To react with faith. To meet life’s challenges with an assurance that is grounded in My Love for you—and for everyone around you. I Am asking you to keep walking, to not give up—and that means, to keep hope alive for your business and for your most precious relationships. Continue to ask Me for ways that you and Pete can celebrate your love for each other while in the middle of a busy and sometimes stressful life. Ask Me for ways you two can rejoice together. You have had your share, and more than your share, of weeping together—and weeping alone. It is okay to ask Me to help you rejoice, to find those happenings in your lives together to rejoice over.

Lord, sometimes it seems as if our world together is shrinking. Like today, sitting on that swing.

And how did you feel in those moments?

Content. Truly content. He was feeling okay—that is a big issue for me, how he is feeling physically moment to moment. Maybe I shouldn’t let that influence my emotional mood, but honestly, it does. If he feels good, I can feel my whole body unwind and settle down. I think…I think I have become hyper-vigilant, and not in a good way necessarily. Kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Wanting to make sure I am right there to catch him if he falls—literally! As if I could. I hear myself sometimes and I just want to say to myself, be quiet already! Let the man be! But then I think, if I don’t watch out for him, who will? I feel like I am not doing my job, if I am not watching him like a hawk every minute.

And where does your joy go, in your vigilance?

Sheesh, out the proverbial clichéd window! Seriously, it just evaporates.

Then what makes you think your response is any part of My Will for you? Follow the Joy. Follow the Peace. Follow the Love. You think you are being loving, but actually you have elevated your worry and your stress over how he feels and tried to convince yourself these are spiritual, lofty responses. But they aren’t. They are very human responses to very real concerns. But don’t make the mistake of calling your worry or your stress faith. You know it isn’t. You know it doesn’t flow from the same place your contentment of this afternoon flowed from.

Ok, so this is not the direction I pictured this discussion going, but thank You. And I have a question. How AM I supposed to take care of him?

 Well, not by assuming he cannot care for himself. And not by thinking your watchfulness will prevent anything or everything that you might label as “bad” from happening. Eve, your bodies are aging, both of you. Eventually the shell and cocoon all of you inhabit now will be swallowed up in a blissful eternity. That is not something to fear—you know that. It is not something to dread—you know that, too. And the reason I Am saying this now is, your worry, your stress, your fear, your dread are robbing you, both of you, of moments right now. Moments like this afternoon’s, in your swing. If you can find the courage and the peace within yourself to truly let go, and determine to rejoice in all there is to rejoice over, and to revel in every peaceful and joyful moment, you will first of all enjoy your days more, and second, receive the strength you need when the time comes that you do have to assume more of a caregiving role than you need to now. You found that strength with your folks, so you know what I mean. For now, rejoice more. Laugh more. Play more. Flow more. Think of these days and weeks and months, all your latter years together, like a halcyon Indian Summer. Just revel in your time together. You already have had more years than you initially hoped for. Keep enjoying all your minutes together. Find reasons to rejoice and watch the joy in your lives, in both your lives, increase again.

I can’t carry him.

You cannot. You will both fall, if you try. But you CAN walk alongside him, which is all he really wants. It is all I Am asking of you, too. And if you look deep in your own heart, it is also all you want, all you long for. Just walk alongside.

 

 

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The Edge of Light

Lord, I have friends going through hard times, all kinds of hard times. It’s hard to know how to feel. I am not exactly lost, though I haven’t been in these exact woods before, watching them hurt, watching them struggle.  I can see out the window the dark edge of one tree trunk, sharply defining its distance, its separation, from the lighter trunk behind it. Two individuals, one silhouette. How can I not be an empath, not take on, others’ sadness?  How can I stay focused and affirming and happy when it seems like their worlds are falling apart?

By remembering I Am the Burden-Bearer. By shifting the weight of it onto Me. By remembering I died for times like this–and rose–rose to overcome sorrow and mourning, death itself. By receiving afresh the joy I mean for you to have, the connection. By embracing Light–even at midnight. By knowing dawn comes, is inevitable. By seeking Me for guidance about your rest and priorities. You cannot carry others; they are too heavy for you. You can only bring them to Me, as you have done, as you continue to do. And walk with them. While you are with them, you may have to slow your pace–but you are not with them 24/7. So the rest of the time you must give over to Joy. Skip! Dance! Laugh! You know how laughter heals–don’t let this become a wound in you. Increasingly you trust Me for blessing–don’t let that go now. Trust for yourself and trust for your friends. It is okay to weep for them–I wept, with Mary and Martha over Lazarus–but don’t stay stuck there, weeping.

Roll away the stone of your own grief and call to life anything that has died within you. Mourn that no more. Call it to resurrection. Jubilee is restoration. Think resurrection, too. So many dreams are coming true for you now; call them all to you. Call them all. There is nothing you can want that doesn’t please Me, for you please Me, and your desires and dreams are True. Begin to name them. Make them yours. Let this be prayer for you. You want healing for others? Sing it home, call it out.