This is really beautiful, Sean. Thank you. I've been having lots of conversations lately about similar ideas. We have needs and wants, which often are built on fears. How much time do we spend each day focusing on them?! And then, in one moment, you find yourself in a situation where you show up for someone else, you express love to them in a way you are guided to, and all of that nonsense just falls away. The hunger pangs...gone. The worry about finances...gone. The despair over wrinkles and aging...gone. (Yes, even people committed to their spiritual path sometimes look in a mirror and wince. LOL.) If you take some time to reflect on such loving interactions, you realize the power of them and you know that is the only way to live. It's what makes me put on my sneakers every morning at sunrise and head out the door. And, just wow, the loving experiences I have had with brothers and sisters out in the world. ❤️
Thanks for sharing, Margaret. I hear and identify with all of this. Indeed, I think the course has for me been especially helpful in teaching me how to see beyond the self-centered psychology arising from the body and open up to the other. I think you mentioned something a few posts back about nonduality purity in the ACIM community (I'm wildly paraphrasing - my bad), and I think one of the things that really sets the course apart is its continued emphasis on relationship with others as the means by which we remember what we are in truth (which is one but in a deeper sense than the body and its braininess can see).
I also agree that those relationships - or moments IN those relationships - are incredibly powerful. I find them healing in ways that are both explicable and divine. We are servants at heart, devoted to the collective. It is the way 🙏🙏
Sean this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read I just love it and I can’t say anything about it that it doesn’t say it self Thank you Sean
Thanks so much for this Sean! And you wrote this so eloquently, like an extended poem. This is s post where you want to ponder about. It feels so much like the truth. I have had enough proof through my practice of the Course and experience with miracles that this is so, I like every word and it gives me a soft but friendly nudge. One that I needed because I had a Course practice day with a lot of resistance. This gives me just what I needed, so thanks again! Love, Valentine Laout
Thanks Sean. I have just begun the course and have been watching your YouTube videos on the lessons and really appreciate your insights. I am happy to see your weekly posts and look forward to seeing more of you online.
Sean, I’m so glad you surfaced again here on these Monday missives. I was a bit worried about your absence. Today’s piece is a comfort. I appreciate the braid you make with dear Emily and the course . . . “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
Thank you, Susan. I hope all is well. And I appreciate the kind words re: Emily Dickinson. Her work has been so helpful to me over the years, understanding and practicing the Christian path, loosely defined and loosely - but not indifferently - held.
All is well. My writing over the past months with respect to ACIM and spirituality has been the vein of 10,000 word essays that are kind of baffling and a little hard to manage. As you know, once you hit that scale it's kind of a different creative process, especially around rewriting and sharing.
Thank you for sharing. I hope all is well with you and yours - it's good to hear from you.
All is well-ish at my end, thanks. Embracing some helpful Soto Zen studies and practices that recall certain aspects of ACIM for me. Still, roots of my old Catholic indoctrination periodically trip me up in both of those pastures. I'm curious about your lengthier essays. Will your work be available on your website or perhaps in book form in the near future? I hope so.
I'm glad you're well and yeah, Catholicism never really leaves. Fascinating how our minds hold onto those ideas from childhood. Patterns really, not ideas.
I don't know about the longer work! I hope to share some at some point.
You take an interesting spin with Emily Dickinson's acknowledgement of her sister-in-law. I see her poetic words as the understanding that she could not appreciate her own attempts at poetry until she experienced Sue's appreciation of her writings. Sue's interest and appreciation suggested to Emily that there may really be something of value here. So the relationship with Sue deepened Emily's appreciation of her own efforts.
In my small ACIM group yesterday, we read from The State of Grace and puzzled over "Recognizing the Majesty of God as your brother is to accept your own inheritance." [ch 7, XI, 5-4] I'm now understanding more through this story of Sue who apparently deeply appreciated Emily's poetry how the "Majesty of God" is active in Sue's openness. And, thus how we all can now benefit much more.
This is difficult to explain, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say....
Yeah, the relationship between Sue and Emily Dickinson is a complex one and doesn't sugar out in any simple analysis. I do think that Dickinson's sense of her art was informed by Sue's close and thoughtful readings, and I think that's also a fair read of the quatrain I shared. But also, Dickinson's poems rarely lend themselves to just one reading! Which is part of what I have always admired and enjoyed about her work.
I love - LOVE - your reading of Sue's openness and connecting it to the "Majesty of God." That's lovely and absolutely testifies to my sense of both women and their relationship.
Thanks for reading and sharing, Valerie. Hope all is well!
Substitute Mercy for Love in Shakespeare….the quality of love is not strained…it dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath….it is twice blessed…it blesseth he that gives and he that takes ….
This is really beautiful, Sean. Thank you. I've been having lots of conversations lately about similar ideas. We have needs and wants, which often are built on fears. How much time do we spend each day focusing on them?! And then, in one moment, you find yourself in a situation where you show up for someone else, you express love to them in a way you are guided to, and all of that nonsense just falls away. The hunger pangs...gone. The worry about finances...gone. The despair over wrinkles and aging...gone. (Yes, even people committed to their spiritual path sometimes look in a mirror and wince. LOL.) If you take some time to reflect on such loving interactions, you realize the power of them and you know that is the only way to live. It's what makes me put on my sneakers every morning at sunrise and head out the door. And, just wow, the loving experiences I have had with brothers and sisters out in the world. ❤️
Thanks for sharing, Margaret. I hear and identify with all of this. Indeed, I think the course has for me been especially helpful in teaching me how to see beyond the self-centered psychology arising from the body and open up to the other. I think you mentioned something a few posts back about nonduality purity in the ACIM community (I'm wildly paraphrasing - my bad), and I think one of the things that really sets the course apart is its continued emphasis on relationship with others as the means by which we remember what we are in truth (which is one but in a deeper sense than the body and its braininess can see).
I also agree that those relationships - or moments IN those relationships - are incredibly powerful. I find them healing in ways that are both explicable and divine. We are servants at heart, devoted to the collective. It is the way 🙏🙏
Thanks for reading & sharing -
~ Sean
Sean this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read I just love it and I can’t say anything about it that it doesn’t say it self Thank you Sean
You're welcome, Sean. I appreciate the kind words. I hope all is well on your end.
~ Sean
❤️
Thanks so much for this Sean! And you wrote this so eloquently, like an extended poem. This is s post where you want to ponder about. It feels so much like the truth. I have had enough proof through my practice of the Course and experience with miracles that this is so, I like every word and it gives me a soft but friendly nudge. One that I needed because I had a Course practice day with a lot of resistance. This gives me just what I needed, so thanks again! Love, Valentine Laout
You're welcome, Valentine. Thank you for reading and being here - I'm very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Such a beautiful reflection, Sean. It opened up an entirely new door for me. Thank you.
You're welcome, Denise - thank you for reading and sharing.
~ Sean
Thanks Sean. I have just begun the course and have been watching your YouTube videos on the lessons and really appreciate your insights. I am happy to see your weekly posts and look forward to seeing more of you online.
Thanks, Frank - I'm glad it's helpful - thank you for being here and sharing 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Sean, I’m so glad you surfaced again here on these Monday missives. I was a bit worried about your absence. Today’s piece is a comfort. I appreciate the braid you make with dear Emily and the course . . . “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
Thank you, Susan. I hope all is well. And I appreciate the kind words re: Emily Dickinson. Her work has been so helpful to me over the years, understanding and practicing the Christian path, loosely defined and loosely - but not indifferently - held.
All is well. My writing over the past months with respect to ACIM and spirituality has been the vein of 10,000 word essays that are kind of baffling and a little hard to manage. As you know, once you hit that scale it's kind of a different creative process, especially around rewriting and sharing.
Thank you for sharing. I hope all is well with you and yours - it's good to hear from you.
~ Sean
All is well-ish at my end, thanks. Embracing some helpful Soto Zen studies and practices that recall certain aspects of ACIM for me. Still, roots of my old Catholic indoctrination periodically trip me up in both of those pastures. I'm curious about your lengthier essays. Will your work be available on your website or perhaps in book form in the near future? I hope so.
I'm glad you're well and yeah, Catholicism never really leaves. Fascinating how our minds hold onto those ideas from childhood. Patterns really, not ideas.
I don't know about the longer work! I hope to share some at some point.
Sean
You take an interesting spin with Emily Dickinson's acknowledgement of her sister-in-law. I see her poetic words as the understanding that she could not appreciate her own attempts at poetry until she experienced Sue's appreciation of her writings. Sue's interest and appreciation suggested to Emily that there may really be something of value here. So the relationship with Sue deepened Emily's appreciation of her own efforts.
In my small ACIM group yesterday, we read from The State of Grace and puzzled over "Recognizing the Majesty of God as your brother is to accept your own inheritance." [ch 7, XI, 5-4] I'm now understanding more through this story of Sue who apparently deeply appreciated Emily's poetry how the "Majesty of God" is active in Sue's openness. And, thus how we all can now benefit much more.
This is difficult to explain, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say....
Yeah, the relationship between Sue and Emily Dickinson is a complex one and doesn't sugar out in any simple analysis. I do think that Dickinson's sense of her art was informed by Sue's close and thoughtful readings, and I think that's also a fair read of the quatrain I shared. But also, Dickinson's poems rarely lend themselves to just one reading! Which is part of what I have always admired and enjoyed about her work.
I love - LOVE - your reading of Sue's openness and connecting it to the "Majesty of God." That's lovely and absolutely testifies to my sense of both women and their relationship.
Thanks for reading and sharing, Valerie. Hope all is well!
~ Sean
Substitute Mercy for Love in Shakespeare….the quality of love is not strained…it dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath….it is twice blessed…it blesseth he that gives and he that takes ….
Perfect . . . thank you Kristine . . . hope all is well!
~ Sean
Thank you Sean for sharing what a touching writing. Will reread and remind oneself.
Sending blessings to you, family and all living beings. I Grace Australia
You're welcome, Ingrid. Thanks for reading and sharing. All is well in New England - hope the same for you and yours!
~ Sean