Before the day begins
before the headlines and breaking news
I wake in the quiet of the middle of the night,
climb into the lap of universal Mother-Love
and feel her pull me close,
comforting, assuring,
“All is well. All, all is well.”
I nestle in under Her shoulder,
and feel the vibrations of Love’s cosmic humming.
The light is beginning to fill the sky now
and I prepare for the new day
with Love’s assurance still with me,
“All is well. All, all is well.”
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Peace. Be still. Listen.
Do you hear the song of Love
calling to your heart?
Do you feel the cool breeze of kindness
blowing over our humanity’s fevered skin?
Do you see the kinship in the sun
and moon, oceans and air we all share?
Does the sweet fragrance of spring remind you
of things more important than hate
and fear and war?
The call to Love is universal
and irresistible. It will not be ignored.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
I can imagine it –
all the world waking up one morning
as if from a strange dream –
shaking our heads to clear the last
of it from our thoughts
and looking around at the beauty
surrounding us – the beauty
that’s always been here –
as if we’re seeing it for the first time.
I can imagine us blinking our eyes
at the wonder of the first sunrise
after our collective awakening.
Looking at each other with new eyes –
recognizing the Love that’s always
bound and connected us to each other.
Seeing in each other the splendor
of our universal body.
I can imagine it like it’s happening
right now.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Feeling unsettled.
What’s going on?
Scared of what might come.
Don’t think ahead. Focus on now.
Okay.
Can you breathe?
Yes.
Then do that. Be grateful for that.
Can you sing?
Yes.
Then use your voice and sing yourself a song.
Can you love?
Yes.
Then love. Love like there’s no tomorrow. Love like there’s only now.
Okay.
Feeling better?
Yes. Thank you, Karen.
Any time. I’m always here.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
She was trying to understand the unfathomable –
trying to find a reason and cause for the hate and insanity
the greed and racism, willful ignorance and inanity.
And finally she realized she was looking at it upside-down:
Trying to find a source for a story that’s not true
is like trying to find the reason fairies exist
or hobbits live in her shoe;
It’s like asking why Road Runner and Wiley Coyote
are always in a fight;
It’s like trying to find the source for darkness
instead of turning on a light.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
(Photo by NASA.)
I went in search of joy –
trusting Love to lead me
to treasure beyond compare.
I found birds – cormorants,
ducks, swans, and geese –
calmly doing what birds do
and it brought me peace.
Joy!
I passed by places where
I’d spent time with loved ones
and happy memories filled
my soul and made me smile.
I remembered the love
and found the love was with me still.
Joy!
I passed a woman with a bag
of belongings on her back
and asked her if she needed a ride.
She pushed her bag in my car
and got into the passenger seat.
I asked her if she was hungry
and we went to the espresso stand
to find her something to eat.
The barista understood what we
were doing and gave my new friend
extra crackers and we smiled
conspiratorial kindness at each other.
Joy!
And as I drove my passenger to her
next destination she told me that God
had sent her on her journey today
with a message she’d had to deliver
to someone up the road.
And it came to me then that she’d
been a message delivered by Love
to ME today to help lighten my load.
Joy!
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
In the stillness before the sun rises –
before the wordle and strand games;
the Facebook feed and the “breaking news” –
I give myself a moment to hear only You.
I feel Your love with me right now and here,
enveloping me in the assurance
that we are dear to You and we don’t need to fear
whatever may come.
We are One
in Love.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
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?
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
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.
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 