“O weary pilgrim, lift your head: for joy cometh in the morning!”
– Mary M. Weinland
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Monthly Archives: November 2016
The Just Right Messages
What I am finding so heartening right now is how people of all religions and non-religions and races and ethnic backgrounds and genders and sexual orientations are coming together to help each other through these challenging times.
This morning I found the message I exactly needed (and isn’t it amazing how we always seem to get the message we most need when we need it?) waiting for me from a dear Methodist friend: “I am rereading the gospel of Matthew in The Message for some new perspective on some familiar texts and I found a description of your life as Jesus is sending out the disciples. (Matthew 10:16-35) Isn’t that delightful? ‘There is great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived. . . . Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life–body and soul–in his hands.'”
I love that! All of it. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Christ, Truth, will arrive – has always been with us, I believe – to show us the way out of the darkness. Don’t be scared into silence by the bullies. Stand up to them. They can’t touch or harm what’s essential about us – who we really are – the children of God.
And today when I got home – feeling discouraged and alone and surrounded by dark and cold – I clicked onto Facebook to find this message waiting for me from my dear friend, Patricia – a fellow Christian Scientist: “Let us smash this bowl of delusion and rejoice!!! with this clip attached of a little girl exuberantly smashing a bowl . It’s a teensy clip – only five seconds – but I found myself… well, I teared up, actually. Teared up with courage and hope. I really, really needed that clip of the little girl and her happy exuberance.
I believe that if we listen – if we’re open to them – Love is continually sending us the thoughts we need to move us from moment to moment.
“…the angels of His presence – the spiritual intuitions that tell us when ‘the night is far spent, the day is at hand’ – are our guardians in the gloom.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love… My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels are God’s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real individuality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain ‘angels unawares.'”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“These angels deliver us from the depths.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
You’ve Got This
My dear Humoristian hooligans –
Fill your hearts up with kindness and courage. Be alert. Be aware. Be vigilant. We are entering challenging times, but you have everything you need to face them. You have an armor of love, a shield of humor, and a community of fellow Humoristians who care as you do about the world. You are not alone out there. The world needs you – it needs your hearts and humor and kindness. Go out there and bring laughter to those living in a desert of gloom and doom. Bring hope to those desperate for a kind word. Find the beauty. Live in love. You’ve got this. Amen.
Karen
And now for a moment of joy…
“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
This morning Scotty and I went up to Bellingham for a walk on the boardwalk with Sam the Wonder Dog, and then breakfast at the Harris Avenue Cafe. It was like this little piece of Heaven. We stepped out of the stresses and pressures for a couple hours – took a little break together – I told Scott it felt “luxurious.” It was fun sitting in the cafe, surrounded by happy people sounds.
I’m thinking we ALL need a little break right now – time to fill our beings’ up with the things that don’t rust, depreciate, or decompose: Love, joy, integrity, kindness, wisdom – these are things that never lose value.
“Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy!”
– Anne Frank
“Stop complaining about the management of the universe. Look around for a place to sow a few seeds of happiness.”
– Henry Van Dyke
“I believe we’re on earth to delight each other, make each other laugh, and to infuse one another with His joy. Why not? What’ve we got better to do?”
– Burt Rosenberg
(all photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
Clara and her tail.
Happy Girl
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
Snow geese in Skagit County, WA. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
An alpine butterfly flits among the flowers on Table Mountain. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
Sunrise on the Way to Work Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
Shuksan Reflection
Sunset from Clayton Beach
photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
Windowsill (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
Mama Robin and babies on our porch. (Karen Molenaar Terrell)
The sons at Lincoln City.
This bird settled on my hand while I was tromping around Mount Baker, and let me snap his picture…
Tartan
Mount Shuksan
sunflower and bee
Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese in Bow
Otters in Bellingham
Dancing in Boulevard Park
“You are not the boss of me.”
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Standing Rock
Dear Pres. Obama,
Thank you for your service to our country. I had the honor of being a state delegate for you in 2012. The last eight years have been, for the most part, a time of peace and prosperity within our borders – and I’m really grateful for all you did to help make that happen.
I am right now watching a video clip of the people at Standing Rock being blasted with water. It breaks my heart. That land belongs to them – set aside for them by the United States government. We need to keep our promises to our native brothers and sisters. Please do what you can to help them.
Thank you,
Karen Molenaar Terrell
Work in Progress
There were a couple things that came across my Facebook page this morning that really inspired me, and helped me deal with our current situation in the US of A. The first one was a clip of an interview Jon Stewart had on CBS (“I don’t believe we’re a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago… The same country that elected Donald Trump elected Barack Obama…. America is not natural – natural is tribal – we’re fighting against thousands of years of human behavior and history to create something… that’s what’s exceptional about America and that’s what’s… this ain’t easy. It’s an incredible thing.”); the second was a story about what Pres. Obama told his daughters after the election (“You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.”).
The United States of America is a work in progress, ain’t it? And I love that. We can only go forward. In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy says: “In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.” I believe that’s true for my country, too.
An Ode to Black Friday
Ode to Black Friday
I do not like Black Friday, sir
I do not like the brrr, grrr, whirrr
I do not like to fight over socks,
I do not like to get crammed in a box
store, you will not see me at the Mall
I do not like it, no, not at all.
The crazy, scrambling, hunter’s race
doesn’t fit my ambling, gatherer’s pace
I like to feel, I like to sniff
I like to take my time and if
I take more time than Sally and Sam
it’s the way I shop, and it works for me, ma’am.
So you will not find me camped outside the store
You will not find me standing at dawn at the door
You will not find me wedged in the mall’s lot
or crammed in traffic, with wares newly-bought.
For I do not like Black Friday, friend.
Well, except online shopping maybe – they’ll send.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
And on that note… 🙂 perhaps you’d like to see some of the really awesome books (written by an extraordinary thinker… I mean… well… often there are moments of clarity… or… okay, it’s kind of hit and miss, but I’m pretty sure there’s something I’ve written that’s worth reading… maybe) you can buy online at Amazon.
Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist – the first in the Madcap Christian Scientist trilogy. I wrote this one to address some of the “feargnorance” surrounding Christian Science, and to share my own experiences with this way of life. Blessings has 31 reviews and five stars on Amazon now! (It’s available in print book, as a Kindle book, and as an audiobook, too.)
The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book is the second book in the trilogy. This one shares my experiences with severe depression during my Year of Insanity.
The Madcap Christian Scientist: All Things New is the final book in the Madcap Christian Scientist trilogy. In this book I share my adventures as I leave behind a career of 20 years and launch out into The Great Unknown. (Spoiler alert: It has a happy ending. 🙂 )
The poem you read above can be found in my book of poetry, A Poem Lives on My Windowsill.
Stories about the holiday season can be found in The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book.
And my most recent book is Finding the Rainbows: Lessons from Dad and Mom – in this book I share the life lessons I learned from my parents during my dad’s 98th year.
So there you go!
Ahem. I feel I have now done my part to help you in your holiday purchases. Do what you feel you must do to get those Christmas gifts. And if you feel you must participate in Black Friday sales at your local strip mall, my heart (though not my body) goes with you.
– Karen
The Sleeping Giant Awakens
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.
– Mary Baker Eddy
Movement of Good
Spoiler alert: These are the final sentences in my book, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. I wrote these words back in 2005, but I felt the need to share them on this morning in 2016:
There is a movement of good at work in our world, and we all have an incredible opportunity to be part of this movement. As Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health, “Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.” I thank God for every occasion we have to prove His goodness and love. I thank Him, too, for the sense of community we find when we gather with like-minded people to work for the cause of Love. That’s one investment of time that I’m willing to make.
You, dear reader, are now a part of my community, too. God bless you richly with infinite blessings!
Go out there and find the beauty, spread the love, and be part of the magic, dear friends!
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 