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Category Archives: inspiration
“When the heart speaks…”
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Another Moment to Love
Another moment of life –
another moment to love.
A Hat with Cat Ears
Note: This is me in my pussy hat. It is a hat with cat ears. It was knitted for me by an 80-something year-old woman who lives in my mom and dad’s assisted living place. She knitted me this hat so she could be part of the march. There was nothing vulgar about this hat. No, I did not wear a knitted vagina on my head.
That is all. Carry on then…
Karen in her Pussy Hat
On “Faith Healing”
We went to the local university to watch Gleason the other night. It was a pretty intense movie. Uplifting in parts. Depressing in others. There were three scenes, in particular, that were really uncomfortable for me to watch – two of them because it felt like I was intruding on very private, very personal, moments in another person’s life; and one because it involved a scene of faith healing that made me want to get out of my chair and scream, “Stop it!” to the church people who were making a spectacle of a man with ALS – using him in a way that seemed cruel to me.
People often mistake Christian Science for faith healing. It is not.
Christian Science healing doesn’t involve spectacle or miracle. It’s not showmanship. It’s not a public display. It’s private – sometimes the only person involved is the person who experiences the healing. There’s no begging or pleading with some anthropomorphic god who might choose to heal you, or might choose to not. Although sometimes it’s dramatic, other times it’s just a gentle unfolding – a quiet change of thought – a recognition of Love’s perfect creation. In Christian Science, healing isn’t some supernatural event, but a natural manifestation of Love, Truth, God. In the textbook for Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science wrote: “Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural.”
Sometimes I’ve known I was healed before the healing was made apparent, physically. This happened once when I was dealing with a puffed-up hand – there came a moment when the fear completely lifted from me and I knew I was fine – even though my hand still appeared ballooned to twice its size. The next day the hand was back to its normal appearance. (Later, blood tests that had been done on the first day of the puffed-up hand came back from the doctor’s office that indicated rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor’s office wanted me to see an RA specialist – but I told them my hand was completely fine now. The nurse said she guessed I didn’t need to do anything more then – but to let them know if things changed. That was six years ago, and there hasn’t been a return of the condition.)
Other times the physical manifestation of healing has been immediately obvious – the time my little brother was diagnosed by a doctor with mastoiditus, for instance – one moment he was screaming in pain, the next moment he was snoring in peaceful slumber, completely healed. He never had to return to the doctor for treatment, and there was none of the surgery the doctor had predicted he’d need.
There’s no pleading or begging or “in Jesus’ name”-ing in Christian Science healing. Christian Scientists aren’t asking God to do something She isn’t already doing. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in the Christian Science textbook: “The mere habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed, – an error which impedes spiritual growth… God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of anything He does not already comprehend? Do we expect to change perfection?” A little later she wrote: “Asking God to be God is a vain repetition. God is ‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;’ and He who is immutably right will do right without being reminded of His province… Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution.”
Christian Science healing doesn’t come from a blind, emotional faith in Jesus or a man-god. For me, healing comes hand-in-hand with a growing understanding of the power of universal divine Love, and of myself as a perfect reflection of Love. And you don’t have to belong to any particular religion to have access to this healing power of Love, either – it’s available to everyone, regardless of religion or non-religion. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: “In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as ‘a very present help in trouble.'”
Anyway. After watching Gleason the other night, I just felt the need to share my thoughts about all of this today. I have huge respect and admiration for the manner in which Steve Gleason and his wife have faced the challenges they’ve faced in the last five years, and for the decisions they’ve made during this time. Their decisions have come from their love for each other and their families. And Love, in Christian Science, is God.
“…I did not feel God as most people see Him. I did feel something larger than myself, something in the mountains and the glaciers and the glowing sky that, in rare moments, reassured me, and made me feel that the world was orderly and loving and good… It was simply a silence, a wholeness, an awe-inspiring simplicity. It seemed to reach me through my own feelings of love, and I have often thought that when we feel what we call love, we are really feeling our connection to this awesome presence… It wasn’t cleverness or courage or any kind of competence or savvy that saved us, it was nothing more than love, our love for each other, for our families, for the lives we wanted so desperately to live.”
– Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes
Coming Together for America
So we have hunters uniting to save public lands, people coming together at airports to show their support for Muslim refugees, women marching in the streets for equality and justice, teachers calling their legislators to insist on being represented by a Secretary of Education who actually respects public education, National Park Service employees and EPA employees going around a gag order and using their First Amendment rights to keep the public informed, veterans rallying with the Native Americans to protect our water, scientists planning a march for the environment, Evangelical Christians picketing outside the National Prayer Breakfast on behalf of the refugees – and today I passed some folks on the street corner who were holding signs in favor of the Affordable Care Act… I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime – this is what democracy looks like – this is America!
AND we’re talking non-violent resistance here. There was no violence and there were no arrests during the women’s march – and that’s now estimated at more than 4 million people in the U.S. alone. No violence has been used by the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency to go around the presidential gag order – just wiles and wit. The Native Americans and veterans have had violence shown against them – but they have not resorted to violence themselves. The hunters didn’t resort to violence to protect public lands…
“… oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator.” – Mary Baker Eddy
“I have discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“What if instead of resistance…we call it THE INSISTENCE? You all are clever enough to know what I mean. That is what I’m calling it now: The Insistence on protecting the vulnerable, teaching our children properly, standing up for justice, eliminating hate, bigotry , and greed….”
– Sharon Strong
Something happened this weekend…
Something happened this weekend that really touched me. The eldest son and his girlfriend came over to watch the first Harry Potter movie with us. And when it got to the part where the students were being divided into their different houses, I asked the son about this – did the different houses each represent a different trait or characteristic or something? He said that one house valued intelligence, another courage, a third valued kindness, and the fourth valued ambition. I asked him which house he thought he’d fit in and he said the one that values kindness probably (which was cool to me because the eldest son is brilliant – but he chose kindness over that). He asked me where I’d go, and I said maybe the scholarly one – or the kind one.
And then we sort of mulled over the idea of any of us going to the house that values courage and we decided that, yeah – we’d probably all be okay with that one, too. “I’ve climbed mountains…” I said – trying to blow my own horn 
– “and traveled and had adventures…” and then – and this is the part that really touched my heart – the son said, “And you’ve gotten in the middle of a fight and stood up to bullies before.” And his girlfriend asked, “Really?!” – trying to picture me doing that. And the son said yeah, he’d seen me walk into a ring of gang members before and seen me try to yank one guy off another one.
And this is true. I did do that. I saw a young man sitting on top of another young man, pounding his head into the parking lot pavement when I came out of a movie theater once – and, without thinking, I walked into the ring of spectators watching this happen, and tried to pull the attacker off his victim. I yelled, “Stop it! You’re killing him!” And one of the spectators said, “Lady, you better be careful. This guy could have a knife!” And I turned on him and asked him why he was just watching, why he wasn’t trying to help. And then I put my hands on my hips and announced, “I am a teacher!” – like that was going to make them all stop. And the guy who was smashing the other guy’s head into the pavement sort of paused, and looked up at me for a minute, and then went back to doing what he was doing. Pretty soon the police came out and took care of it all.
But… I didn’t know my son had appreciated me doing that, or had admired it. He’d been watching me from a distance with his friends and their parents – he was only nine or so at the time – and I always kind of wondered what he’d thought about it all. Had he thought I was crazy stupid to get in there and try to break that fight up (which I probably was, in retrospect)? Had he been embarrassed by me?
And last weekend he told me I had made him proud that night.
Isn’t that cool?
Love asked me…
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To My Superhero Friends
My dear Humoristian hooligan heroes,
I am inspired by you. Your humor, your courage, you ability to “lol” in the face of threats and intimidation, your willingness to stand up to bullies and bigots without a second’s thought – you are the stuff of Superhero legend. Maybe your arms can’t stretch like rubber, and you can’t burn through metal with your steely gaze – but you’ve got better gifts than those – unstoppable courage, irrepressible joy, pugnacious good humor, and hearts full of love for humanity. Bless you, dear friends. I’m so glad to know each and every precious one of you.
Let’s go out there and save the world!
Karen
Is this appropriate?
My study of Christian Science has informed every aspect of who I am – it’s had an influence on my family relationships, friendships, career, art, adventures, and politics. I can’t separate Christian Science from any part of me – I can’t compartmentalize it into some box called “religion” and only bring it out on Sundays and occasional holidays, and those times when I might be in need of healing..
When I share my blog posts, I am only speaking for myself and my own experience with Christian Science – I am not speaking for any other Christian Scientists. Christian Scientists are not a monolithic group. We don’t all think, feel, and believe the exactly same way about things. We don’t all share the same political views. Some Christian Scientists identify as Democrats, and some as Republicans, and some as something else altogether. And I think that’s awesome.
In the past year a lot of my posts have been political in nature. Again, I’m only expressing my own views – as this particular Christian Scientist. I am living Christian Science as I feel God is directing me to live it – and I make no apologies for this, nor do I expect any other Christian Scientist to live their lives as I feel God is directing me to live mine. We are individual expressions of Love, each fulfilling our own “niche in time and eternity” (Mary Baker Eddy) and I believe we need to allow each other to have these life experiences and expressions without condemnation or judgment. Where God is leading you is none of my business. Where God is leading me is none of your business.
I will never use my blog to tell anyone how to vote. I will never use my blog to try to convince everyone to be Democrats, or Republicans, or any other political party. I will, however, use my blog to address issues that I feel need to be addressed.
Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, and to being open to what I have to share. It takes epic kindness and generosity to listen to others, and try to understand their perspective, and I thank you for that!
(This blog post is in response to a comment from a reader: “I don’t think your comments are appropriate under the heading of Christian Science writings!”)
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 