Monthly Archives: January 2025

Note to a Friend

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Note to a friend:

I know that God loves you no less than She loves me. I know that God loves all of Her children without limit. And I trust that She is continually leading and guiding each of us down our own paths in life, with our own lessons waiting for us – and it’s not my business to decide how you should think or feel or be. But it IS my business to follow God’s direction in my own life – and that includes taking a stand for what I know is honest and right, and confronting evil when I see it.

In love, Karen

A Healing

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A few weeks ago I woke up with an itchy rash and welts on my head and neck, and going down my back. Concerned I might have something contagious, and not wanting to put my husband at risk, I drove myself to the local urgent care the next day, praying all the way to know that Love went before me.

The first cool thing that happened was that they didn’t make me get on a scale. The next cool thing that happened was that I was assured my blood pressure was fine (I always kind of freak out when I go to doctors, and I expected my b.p. to be through the roof). The third cool thing that happened was that the doctor told me I didn’t seem to have anything contagious. She said, though, that she could give me an antihistamine or a steroid – but I told her no, I was good – as long as I wasn’t going to cause harm to anyone else, I was fine. (Everyone was very kind and calm at the Urgent Care and I really appreciated that.)

When I got home, I called a local Christian Science practitioner/teacher for her prayerful support. And she was wonderful! I felt her loving support instantly! She sent me to various articles and podcasts for inspiration – that was really helpful to me. She sent me to an excellent podcast with Mark Swinney, a Cristian Science practitioner and teacher. And she invited me to join her branch church’s Wednesday night testimony meeting via zoom.

One of the last passages the reader read at the Wednesday night meeting was Mary Baker Eddy’s interpretation of the 23rd Psalm, and I felt healing come with this line: “Love anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” I could just feel God’s love pouring over my head, soothing and comforting. I just wrapped myself all up in Love’s love.

When I woke up the next morning I was healed.

Just When I Begin to Sink into Despair…

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Just when I begin to sink into despair, something happens that fills me all up with joy and hope. It’s only noon, and already my day has been filled with Good, with the recognition that nothing – absolutely NOTHING – can stop Love from reaching us and blessing us.

A really remarkable thing happened this morning right after I got myself out of bed and dressed. (I had considered just staying there for another hour or two – but this voice told me to get up – that something good was coming!) There was a knock on the door and Scott went to answer it. I heard him talking to a woman, and then I heard him ask the woman if she wanted to talk to me.

I went to the door and saw one of my former eighth graders standing there! Diana had been in my first class of eighth graders in Burlington – back in 1992! I hadn’t seen her for maybe twenty or thirty years! She told me that she’s living in Minnesota now, but she’s home to visit her mom, and she just had to stop in and see me.

And pretty soon we were hugging and crying and it was such a beautiful coming together that my heart just filled up with joy. Diana told me that she’d been wanting to write me, but the words just never came, so she’d decided to talk to me in the person. She told me that her eighth grade year with me had been the most important year in her life and it had stayed with her. She said I’d made a difference in her life – that I’d treated all of my students like I was their mother, and I’d nurtured them like they were my children. She said she’d never had that from a teacher before and it had meant something to her, and she wanted me to know that.

She remembered at the beginning of the school year when I’d invited all the parents and students in to meet me how I’d walked around with my baby (he would have been about nine months then) on my back, and how he’d burped up baby stuff on my shoulder, and how I’d laughed about it. She said she’d never met another teacher like me before. 😃

Diana was a gift from the Cosmos this morning. The love in our space was palpable.

“Despair not; for Love IS with thee.”

Staying Sane, While Staying Informed (Revisited)

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I originally published this post in 2012, but I found myself revisiting it this morning.

…those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 97

***

A friend posted a great cartoon (by David Sippress) on Facebook the other day. It shows a man and woman walking down the street, and the woman is saying: “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.”

I can really relate to this cartoon.

The desire to be a responsible and contributing citizen means that I want to be aware of, and informed about, the challenges my nation faces. But how does one stay informed about these challenges, without feeling overwhelmed by them? Sometimes the fear and hate that seem to permeate our atmosphere can seem impossible to overcome, and I find myself getting pulled inexorably into the brouhaha. I see inequity and unfairness, hypocrisy and bigotry, and it makes me really angry. And the angrier I get the more real and powerful the inequity and bigotry seem to me, and the less powerful I feel in being able to make anything better.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: “We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” (p. 563)

I can imagine someone reading this quote by Mary Baker Eddy and shaking his head, wondering how anyone can write off all the hate and fear as “nothing.” And I can imagine someone reading this quote and comparing Christian Scientists to those three monkeys who “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” But that’s not what Christian Science is about at all.

Eddy writes: “Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality.” (Science and Health, p. 447.)

Note that when Mary Baker Eddy writes about exposing evil and removing its mask, nowhere does she say we do this in a spirit of anger.  In fact, earlier in Science and Health, she writes, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” (Science and Health, p. 201.)

I believe our purpose here is to love – love is what gives meaning to life. And so it doesn’t really make any sense for me to be angry about anger, or to be unkind in the name of kindness, or to feel hate about those who hate – because anger, hate, and unkindness defeat the whole purpose of it all.

I really like the thoughts Kathi Petersen, a spiritually-minded friend from Nova Scotia, sent me earlier this week: “Is there something wrong with wanting to concentrate your mind and energy on positive things? Are we shirking our responsibilities somehow, not being actively embroiled with the downward tendency of our society? Does it somehow help the planet if we spend our days alarmed and shouting about what is going on? I feel so much that the opposite is true … That what the world needs most is people who can spread some Joy … Maybe every village needs its Joy-spreaders, and we should be given some kind of stipend to concentrate on good and happy things …”

Isn’t that a wonderful idea?!

I want to be one of the Joy-spreaders. I want to completely overpower the feelings of gloom and doom, of hopelessness and anger and fear and hate, with joy and good cheer and love.

I started off this blog with a quote by Mary Baker Eddy. The one word that stands out to me, as I reread it, is the word cheerfully.  She tells us that Christian Scientists will “aid in the ejection of error” and “cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.” Isn’t it great that we don’t need to give up our joy to overcome evil? In fact, maybe the only way we can overcome evil is with joy and love.

***

At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 571.

The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 192.

Ramblings on the Anniversary of Dad’s Death

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Ramblings on the anniversary of Dad’s death:

It’s been five and eight now –
five years since Dad
and eight years since Mom.
And I’m still here,
still moving along,
surviving without them near
to guide and advise and bolster.

And, for me, this seems remarkable
because I’m really still just a little kid
in spite of my gray hair,
and being a wife and a mom
and a grandma myself,
and a many-yeared career.
It amazes me that
I’ve made it this far
without Mom and Dad to guide me.

But they gave me tools
to survive without them –
Dad brought me into the mountains
and showed me how strong I am
and how brave.
Mom showed me how to use Love
to heal myself and the world.
And they both showed me
how to laugh when life gets absurd.
I’m so grateful to them
for these tools – these gifts.

Today when I think about them
and feel their love for me,
I will recognize my tears
for what they really are –
tears of gratitude;
tears of recognition
of Life that never ends.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Would Love Exist if No One Had a Brain

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Would Love exist if no one had a brain?
Is Love dependent on nerves and dopamine?
Are we within Love or is Love housed in gray goo?
When our bodies die, does Love die, too?

Love, I think, is bigger than goo,
bigger than “me” and bigger than “you” –
for I believe Love is EVERYTHING –
the Source of the song all creation sings.

– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

In Search of the Sunset

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The son and his family are in LA
and I’ve been feeling disquieted –
feeling the distance
as the fires burn between us.
But tonight I went in search
of the sunset and I remembered
other sunsets and my son and I
hopping in the car to find them.

I mentally bring my son
with me now in my hunt
to find reflections of pink clouds
in flooded fields
and I feel his energy around me –
joyful and free.

I find a glorious sunset
and my heart finds peace.
Then my son messages me that
at the end of the day
he went in search of the sunset, too,
from his home in LA.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell of tonight’s sunset near Bow, Washington.

We Are Worthy

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We are not worthless.
We are worthy –
worthy to be partakers of Love.
In fact, MADE to be partakers of Love –
of the celebration of Life.
God, Love, is our Hostess and she throws
a great party.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Photo of trumpeter swans near Bow, Washington. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)

Review for *Gone with the Penguins* by Hazel Prior

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Note to the author: Hazel Prior, you never fail to uplift me. Thank you for sending your light out into the Cosmos. Your books give me hope for the world; bolster my courage to try to help save it; and always leave me with happy tears. Granny McReedy inspires me to never give up exploring and learning and growing.

Quotes from Gone with the Penguins:

“We will take each day as it comes. Neither of us is a stranger to grief, but we are united and we are strong. Old age is remarkably edifying. Like wartime, it highlights the fragility of life, and its preciousness. Walk, for tomorrow you may be lame. Admire the flowers, for tomorrow you may be blind. Listen to the birds, for tomorrow you may be deaf. Hug those you love, for tomorrow they may be gone. So may you. It is more important to enjoy the moment than to worry about future ones or regret past ones.”
***

“To walk is to think. To walk is to observe. To walk is to take in the wonders of the world.”
***

“Strong?” she mutters. “Well, I must say, ‘strong’ is open to interpretation. I used to believe it meant hardness, blocking off one’s feelings, never sharing, never letting on, never crying. And I suspect you think strength means diving headlong into adventures. But real strength also means trusting. Trusting others, and trusting yourself, too. Allowing yourself to feel what you feel. Knowing that, although we cannot see it, there is more, much more, beyond.”
***

“It’s the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights,” Sir Robert gasps.

“We gaze and gaze. It seems that all the crazy, miraculous, wonderful things that have been hiding throughout my life now cannot contain themselves any longer; they are spilling out across the universe.”
***

“And slowly the swirl of snowflakes clears, and reveals hundreds upon hundreds of similar families grouped behind them, smudges of grey, black, yellow and white blending into the whiter white. Tiny chicks peek out from brood pouches, insulated by their parents’ padding. Toddlers waddle about in fuzzy fleeces, bedraggled wet fur on their nether regions, dragging tiny tails behind them. Adults look on or usher them forward. Every mother and father is swollen with pride, brimming with devotion; almost unbearable sweetness in the snow.”
***

“How can I expain to them this fire that burns within me? They see me with myopic eyes; they see me as too old. They do not realize that every old person contains a young person, one who remains wide open to change, to hope, to possibility.”
***

“We have music, though,” Eileen puts in. “And all sorts of hobbies. Did Darwin explain that? I don’t suppose tiddlywinks or knitting or singing help me survive, but they do make life so much nicer.”
***

“A ‘like’ is apparently a mark of approval from your peers. Young people collect and count them to measure their own self-worth.”
***

“Phones nowadays aren’t content to be merely phones; they pompously insist on being cameras, encyclopedias, calculators, personal trainers, news reporters, gossipmongers and much else besides. In fact, with such receptacles containing one’s entire life, one scarecely needs a brain at all. I have chosen not to possess such a machine. My brain has always worked perfectly well, and should it require a little boost, all I need to do is to consult Eileen.”
***

“No challenge should be faced without great hope, bold lipstick and a smart, good-quality handbag.”
***

There Will Be Rainbows

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There’s no promise that it will be easy. There’s no guarantee there won’t be challenges. But I know this – there will be joy, too. There will be beauty and kindness and laughter. There will be new friends and new paths and new books and rainbows. We’ll find we can be happy even when we’re sad. And we’ll find we have more courage than we knew. We’ve got this. We were made for this.
(Rainbow photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)