Monthly Archives: February 2024

The Nightly News

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NIGHTLY NEWS: …death of…the city’s destruction …earthquake hit… wildfire out of control… missiles attacked…civilians killed… indicted on… newest COVID variant (commercial break – cool new drug name… disease you’ve never heard of before that needs to be treated with the cool new drug name… people smiling and laughing because they took this drug with the cool new drug name…side effects may include diarrhea, dizziness, cancer, death)… Trump ordered to pay… Biden orders strikes on… refugees starving…today the house majority refused to pass a bill that will keep our economy going…(commercial break – another cool new drug name…another disease you’ve never heard of before… tell your doctor about this cool new drug name… more people smiling and laughing…side effects may include dry mouth, drowsiness, depression, may lead to thoughts of suicide)… we’ll end our news tonight with a tribute to a good person who died yesterday.

OR

Alternatively, we could conduct our OWN end-of-the-day nightly news, I guess. Today four people exchanged smiles with me me in the supermarket and we made room for each other as we passed in the produce aisles. I saw a field of daffodils about to spring into bloom. My cat jumped up on the arm of my chair and purred and rubbed her head against me. I got a card in the mail from a dear friend. Scott had a warm fire going for me in the woodstove when I came downstairs this morning. I have a solid roof over my head. My belly was filled with granola and pizza today. My oven works. My washer and dryer work. My toilet works. My hot water heater works. I found another well-crafted British television series to watch by the fire while it snowed outside. The swans are still here, arching their backs and spreading alabaster wings across the local fields. I saw a flock of snow geese, too – fluttering around each other and honking in a beautiful cacophony of geese sounds. I don’t have any aches or pains. My eldest son and his wife and our grandbaby are coming from Australia soon. My youngest son and his wife live near, and I know they are safe and secure, and I will see them soon. I have a new great-grand niece! I felt love today.

“Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding it before your gaze continually… We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love – the kingdom of heaven – reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.“
– Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesp. 248

“The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it… We should master fear instead of cultivating it.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p 196-197

My Dear Humoristian Hooligans

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My dear Humoristian hooligans –

Your mission (should you decide to take it – and, really, what’s the alternative?) is to keep hope alive in yourself so that you can bring it to those lost and weary in a valley of despair. May your irrepressible joy and never-ending good will to all bring light to the desolate, discouraged, and disheartened. May your generosity and open hearts transform the stingy, stodgy, and stuffy. May the bigots, bullies, and busybodies be transformed by your relentless kindness and unfailing patience. May you bring laughter to those in sorry need of a good laugh.

Go out there and work your magic, my friends!

Karen

A Valentine’s Card for You

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T’was the day they call Valentine’s
and o’er all the land
folks were giving out cards
from hand-to-hand.
There were cards with lace
and cards with big hearts
cards with words that rhyme
and cards with moveable parts.
There were funny cards
and romantic cards,
friendship cards and more.
But what they all had in common
was the love at their core.
I love you!
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Random heart photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)

Adventures in Podcasting

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I’ve deleted my Spotify account and no longer have any podcasts through the Madcap Christian Scientist blog. I do have some other podcasts out there, though.

Here’s one through the local Unitarian Universalist fellowship: https://suuf.podbean.com/e/the-healing-power-of-love/

Here’s one through Repod-It!:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/featured-author-karen-molenaar-terrell-children-of/id1540661725?i=1000557722651

And here’s the audible version of my first Madcap Christian Scientist book, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist:
https://www.amazon.com/Blessings-Adventures-Madcap-Christian-Scientist/dp/B00DP8CWQO

Karen Molenaar Terrell

THE 99.9% OF LIFE

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The last couple of days – in an effort to keep life in perspective – I’ve been making an effort to acknowledge all the 99.9% of life that’s good and beautiful and going on around me all the time – every creature that’s expressing life; every breath I take; every smile exchanged; every pretty little rock I find; the perfume of every flower I sniff in the Valentine’s display at the supermarket; every raindrop sparkling in the sunshine; every purr from my cat; every shared laugh on the boardwalk; every swan and eagle winging above me; every kindness shown me by friends and strangers – and I’m here to tell you that we live in a wondrous and bountifully beautiful world.

Karen Molenaar Terrell

Clara and her tail.
December: Trumpeter Swan Flying over Skagit County, WA
Trumpeter Swans in Bow, WA (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
Otter Family

Photos above by Karen Molenaar Terrell.

NASA photo

Hid Safe in Soul

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my memories of love aren’t confined
within my brain
aren’t held within the walls of cerebellum,
cerebrum, and brainstem,
tissue and goo,
my memories of love are part of eternity –
hid safe in the collective consciousness
of Soul
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

I Gather My Memories Around Me

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We created this home together –
my love and I –
and filled it with warmth and joy
and now I sit in our “green room”
and gather my memories
around me like a soft blanket
this is where Dad sat
on his 98th birthday
and reminisced with his old friends
and there is his painting of Rainier
and Mom sang and danced over there,
and lived and died under this roof
that last day,
and over there is where the sons
played the piano and laughed together
and, later, their loves joined us
under this roof and joined in the laughter
while the pandemic made of our home
a safe island and refuge

I feel all the love with me still
Dad’s love and Mom’s
and the sons’ and their partners’
and the love of the man
who helped make this home
with me

I feel the wholeness
and fulness
of my life
and am grateful
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

I Am the Boss of My Thoughts

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I have a whole universe in my thoughts.
And I decide what happens in there.
I am the boss of me.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Hold steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionately to their occupancy of your thoughts.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

NASA image of the Carina Nebula

January 6: What I Saw on that Day and What I See Now

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Dear friend,

It’s interesting to hear your perspective on things. It’s good to hear that you oppose the violence of January 6th – and I assume you oppose any talk of future violence, too. A violent Civil War wouldn’t be helpful to our country, would it?

Lies have been spread from right-wing news sources that people who “pretended to be Trump supporters” were part of the insurrection that day, but there has been no actual evidence of this.

What I saw in live time, from my chair in front of the television, was a mob of people, crashing over the barricades into the capitol, attacking the capitol police, filling the halls of our capitol building with uncontrolled rage and hate. What I saw was a noose set up for VP Pence because he wouldn’t go along with Donald Trump’s plan to discount the legal votes of the more than 81 million people who voted for Biden. What I saw was Donald Trump spurring these insurrectionists on with phrases like “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” As the legislators were fleeing for their lives, and the capitol police were heroically defending our capitol against great odds, and against stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats, and flagpoles – I did NOT see Donald Trump calling in the National Guard to stop the insurrection. The insurrection went on for hours before the National Guard appeared. That is not acceptable. That does not show presidential leadership. That does not show integrity.

When I listen to Donald Trump I hear him disparaging women, the disabled, and refugees and immigrants to this country. His words are full of hate. Just last night he made fun of Nikki Haley’s dress when she spoke to her followers after the New Hampshire primary. Why would any presidential candidate stoop so low as to make fun of a woman’s dress?! It’s mean. It’s unkind. It is not presidential. He talks about the migrants who come to this country through the southern border as “poisoning the blood of America” and “destroying the blood of our country” and “destroying the fabric of our country.” As a teacher who worked with children who’d migrated from Mexico, I find his words deeply disturbing. My students were hard-working, wanting to learn, wanting to excel, wanting to give back to this country. They were not “poisoning” our country. I am the grandchild of immigrants from Europe. My grandparents came to this country to make a better life for themselves and their children. And that is why my students “from the southern borders” came to this country, too. Note that Donald Trump doesn’t use disparaging words against my white grandparents. He reserves those comments for the people who come through the southern border. He appears, to me, to be a racist.

Karen