Love,
Open my eyes to see
there’s no separation
between You and me.
Help me see no one
in any nation
is beyond salvation.
Help me know there’s no wall
dividing the good of one
from the good of all.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Is it selfish of me to feel joy
when there are people dying?
Or
is it selfish of me NOT to feel joy
when I’m able
and can share it with those
who need it?
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Grateful to be alive.
Grateful for sunshine through my window.
Grateful for the fragrance of spring.
My mother-heart breaks today.
Stop!
Stop sending our world’s children
into wars they don’t want.
Their lives are worth more than that.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Joan Baez singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
“Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth… the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places…”
-Isaiah 43
“The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.”
-Mary Baker Eddy
“Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.”
-Mary Baker Eddy
I felt a spark of hope inside me
– a moment when I remembered
what it was like before the invasion
before the insurrection
before the division in our nation
and our world –
a distant memory of good will
and peace.
And remembering, I believe again.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
My dear Humoristian hooligans –
Let’s have a good day today. Let’s find something to laugh about. Let’s find a way to be kind. Let’s find some small victory in today. May we all help bring some light to our world.
Karen
Let all that now divides us
Remove and pass away,
Like shadows of the morning
Before the blaze of day.
Let all that now unites us
More sweet and lasting prove,
A closer bond of union,
In a blest land of love.
– Jane Borthwick, Hymn #196 in the Christian Science Hymnal
a field of gold sunflowers
Ukraine’s national flower
tenacious, unbending,
showing the irrepressible power
of beauty and joy that grows
beyond boundaries
grows beyond war
the song of a nightingale
Ukraine’s national bird
uplifting, soaring, free-sailing
singing a song heard
beyond boundaries
over battles
above the clamor of war
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
A Ukrainian woman, a Russian tennis champion, a Russian hockey star, 13 Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island, and the president of Ukraine have emerged as heroes in the last week. We see all of them confronting the world’s schoolyard bully – sometimes with sorrow, sometimes with anger, and always with unwavering courage. I pray for them, for the people of Ukraine, and for the Russian soldiers, too, who don’t want to be there – who were told by their commanders that they were going on “training exercises,” never wanted to be part of an invasion, and now just want to go home.
“Bloodshed, war, and oppression belong to the darker ages, and shall be relegated to oblivion.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“Love for mankind is the elevator of the human race; it demonstrates Truth and reflects divine Love…” –
Mary Baker Eddy
joyful, playful Life
blessings showered upon us
find the joy today
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
You are my precious child.
Feel yourself embodied in my body –
embodied in the body of Love.
I AM Love, all-power, all-presence, always with you.
I AM impenetrable Love,
all encompassing – the only presence or power or Mind.
You are never separated, isolated, or apart from Love.
There is no place you could go,
or be taken,
that is outside of Love.
You are never apart from Love.
You are never in danger because you are never outside
of what is Good. You are in an impervious armor of Love.
You are a part of the Life that fills all space and never ends.
You are the expression of never-ending Life itself.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
The son and I talked about the tree
on the drive home.
850 years it had lived on this planet!
It had been seeded in the late 1100’s –
around the time of Genghis Khan
and England’s King John,
before Mansua Musa or Marco Polo,
da Vinci or Michelangelo.
Before Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare,
Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mooji.
It rooted into the soil as a tender seedling
and grew during the Black Plague; grew
while the ash from Krakatoa blocked the sun;
and while factories sprouted up across
the northern hemisphere. It grew while
soldiers fought to end slavery; while
World War I and World War II raged
across Europe; while our planet warmed;
and while division and despair
made humans sometimes wonder
if our planet was beyond repair.
It grew.
Quietly, without fanfare or medals
or approval or star ratings –
it lived, created oxygen, and grew –
because that is what trees do.
And maybe when it was older and sturdy,
indigenous children played in its bends
and called it “friend.”
I like to think that’s true.
Yesterday I visited my wise friend, Charles.
He could tell I was scared about our world.
“Just be present,” he said. “Be a tree.”
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
There are nobler things than “shows
of strength,”
stronger things than greed,
more worthy things than ego,
better things to feed.
There’s Love and Truth and Life itself –
all-power, always beautiful, always here.
Greed and ego don’t have a chance
against the Love that we draw near.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Draw nigh to Love and love will draw nigh to you.”
-James 4:8
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 