Monthly Archives: February 2023

Do You Have the Mind of God?

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Years ago, when I was having class instruction in Christian Science, our teacher asked one of my classmates if her Mind was God. I remember she hesitated to answer at first – maybe the idea of saying that her Mind was God seemed sort of pompous? And then she answered, “Yes?” Our teacher smiled and nodded in confirmation, and it came to my classmates and I that, of course, God is our Mind – God is the ONLY Mind, after all. Reasoning from that standpoint, it followed that God is also our Life – which meant our Life was unending; God is also our Love – which meant we were never outside of Love’s reach; God is also our Truth – which meant Truth isn’t something we have to acquire – we know, right now, everything Truth knows.

It was a revelation.

Lately, I’ve found myself contemplating more the Mind that is God. There are a couple of things that have brought me to this contemplation in recent years – my centenarian father was diagnosed with vascular dementia in the last years of his life; I have several friends who have loved ones who have been diagnosed with dementia; and one of my favorite celebrities has recently been diagnosed with dementia. And so I’ve found myself turning to the contemplation of our never-ending Mind.

Feel the presence of infinite Love,
enfolding, protecting, all-powerful.
Feel the presence of Life,
filling all space, without end, all-present.
Feel the presence of infinite Mind,
guiding and governing, all-knowing.

God is the one Mind – eternal, infinite, never-ending, filling all space, always and forever. God is infinite intelligence – infinite Love, Truth, Life, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Mind. Mind is Love.

We are the expressions and manifestations of infinite Mind. We express intelligence, immortal memory, kindness, honesty, clarity. We are eternal because Mind is eternal. We are tied directly to our Father-Mother God – never separated from Mind. There is no spot where Mind is not. There is no time when Mind is not. There is no time or place, in or out, within or without, when Mind ceases or intelligence disappears. We ARE because God is.

The belief that we can ever be separated from Mind or lose our Mind or be without a Mind is a lie, for God is our Mind, always and forever. The belief that God’s children can ever suffer from dementia or insanity is a lie, for all we can be is what God made us to be, what God is Herself. Nothing has the power to usurp Mind’s government of Her own creation – for Mind is the only power and presence.

The truth is, we can’t ever lose our Mind – where would It go?

God, Mind, is all-in-all, eternally.

Amen.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, having the nature of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
-Philippians 2:5-6

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

Cosmic Hug

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Trust.
Feel the arms of Love
enfolding us
all in one universal
cosmic hug.
Feel the pull,
the tug
towards Truth, Life, Soul,
Love
gathering us together,
breaking the fetters,
cutting the tethers
that keep us bound
in hate and fear.
We’re free in Love
right now, right here.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

A Holy and Beautiful Thing

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On this day six years ago – and it was a Monday then, too – my mom was brought by ambulance to our home to begin hospice. We weren’t sure how much time we had left with Mom. I wasn’t sure how we were going to make this work – Scott and I were still working full-time then and we planned on taking turns caring for Mom, but we hadn’t, exactly, figured out when we were going to sleep. We just threw ourselves into this and trusted that it would all work out. We didn’t want Mom to be brought from the hospital to an institution where she’d be surrounded by strangers. We wanted her here with us. It felt right.

Mom and I spent the day telling each other how much we loved each other. At one point she became very tired – too tired to talk – but I was greedy and asked her, once again, if she loved me. Her eyes fastened on me and the look she gave me was pure love- I still see that look in her eyes at times when I need to remember her love.

I went to bed at 9:00 to sleep for a few hours while Scott took the first shift. I’d just fallen asleep when Scott came up to the bedroom to tell me that Mom wanted to talk to me.

I came downstairs and saw Mom sitting up from the hospital bed with a grin on her face. She looked all excited, like she was going to a party or something. I explained to her that I was going to sleep for a little bit, but that I’d come down to be with her at midnight. I told her she wasn’t going to be alone. One of us was going to be with her all the time. She grinned and said, “Okay!”

When I came down at midnight, Moz was sleeping. I gave her some medication when I first came down and some more an hour and half later. I stretched out on the couch next to Mom’s hospital bed to rest a little. About 3:00 in the morning I had this beautiful dream of green fields and rolling hills and butterflies – my dream was full of joy. And I felt something brush by me – touch me – and I felt love and peace as this presence brushed by me.

I woke up then. Mom wasn’t struggling to breathe and I thought, “Oh, I don’t need to give her any medication.” I started to go back to sleep and then… I realized. I got up and felt her and she was starting to feel cool. I went upstairs and got Scott and told him I thought Moz had passed. But I wasn’t sure. There’s such a thin veil between this life and whatever comes after. Scott came down and felt her pulse and told me, “Moz is gone, Sweetie.”

We called hospice, and a nurse came out and talked us through what happened next. I’ll be forever grateful to Hospice of the Northwest for their help through this process.

Moz’s passing was one of the most holy and beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. I’m so grateful that we brought her into our home that last day.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Pictured below: Mom and Einstein.)

Moz and Einstein.

“No Faculty of Mind Is Lost.”

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Hid safe in the one Mind
where identity is protected;
individuality can’t be lost;
and who we are isn’t dependent
upon “brain, blood, blones,
and other material elements.”

Untouched by age.
Unmarred by disease.
Perfect, whole, complete,
unbreakable beauty,
immortal memory.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

“If delusion says, ‘I have lost my memory,’ contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 407

“Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 475

Better Than Okay

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better than okay
pain-free and at peace; resting
in Love. All is well
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, – neither in nor of matter, – and the body will then utter no complaints.”
-Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health, p. 14)

Nothing Can Stop the Joy

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inside the twirling house
in Wizard of Oz
tilting and spinning around in circles
without a pause
scared and alone in the dark
the walls and floorboards
creaking and popping
and then suddenly
I’m bopping and hopping
to Alison Krauss’s rendition
of “I Will” in an irredescent bubble
of joy and peace
floating above the troubled rubble
until it gets smaller and smaller
and disappears into the nothing it is
and I see all there is,
or ever has been, is Love,
and nothing can stop the joy
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

That’s My God

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Others talk of an admonishing god –
a lecturing god,
an angry and exasperated god –
a strict father who gives eternal
time-outs to his children in hell.

But I have the God I need –
Father and Mother,
smiling on me
laughing with me
protecting and guiding me
through Life’s playground,
taking my hands and swinging
me and spinning me
over the bumps until I’m
laughing so hard with
my Father-Mother-Friend
that I have tears on my face.

Yeah. That’s my God.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)



A Long Chain of Smiles

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Quick story:

So I’m at the supermarket yesterday. I park off to the side where it’s not as crowded. As I get out of the car, I notice an older gentleman wheeling a little shopping cart back to the shopping cart area and I tell him I’ll take it from him. He smiles and says when he arrived to go shopping, HE got the cart from another guy who’d been wheeling it to the shopping cart area. He said, “I told him that he’d already warmed it up for me.” We laugh at that and I take the cart in and do my shopping. When I’m done shopping I bring the cart to my car and unload my groceries. Then I start to take the cart back to the cart area when another older gentleman stops me and says he can take it from me – he’s just about to go shopping – and, he says, “You’ve already warmed the cart up for me!” I explain the Saga of the Shopping Cart to him and tell him he’s now the fourth person to have this shopping cart handed off to him. He smiles and nods and takes that friendly little shopping cart into the store.

I like to think that little shopping cart got handed from one customer to another all day long – connecting us all in a long chain of smiles.

Readings on Heart

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Luke 4: 14
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Luke 8: 1, 4-15
4 And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:

5 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

9 And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…

Matthew 5:8
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

Heart: Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows. (587: 23)

Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. (451:14-16)

We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. (8:28)

Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with spiritual views. (32:25)

Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the generic term man. (258:31)

Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. (265:23-28)

Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven. (57:22)

The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. (113:5-6)

Happy Valentine’s Day!