Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
– Mary Baker Eddy
…joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy…
– Mary Baker Eddy
So I’ve been feeling kind of guilty because I’ve got this joy just bubbling up inside me right now – there’re big, fat snowflakes falling gently outside my window, and Christmas tree lights twinkling on the tree, and birds snacking at the birdfeeder, and a cat sitting in the window watching it all, and Burl Ives is singing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” – and this moment is just so perfect and beautiful! But I know there are also a lot of really horrible things happening in the world right now – cruelty and murder and corruption and greed and pollution and starvation – and so I’ve been sitting here wondering if it’s right for me to feel happy.
And… so what I’m thinking is… how is being unhappy going to feed starving children or shelter the homeless? And how is surrendering my joy to bullies and bigots and busybodies going to help end bullying and bigotry and busybodying?
So. Yeah. I guess I’m going to let go of the guilt. I am going to be shameless about my joy. Incorrigible. Irrepressible. Unrepentant. And I ain’t apologizing.
“Be happy at all times and in all places; for remember it is right and a duty you owe to yourself and to your God to retain the right, no matter how loudly the senses scream.”
– Edward A. Kimball
I went to the Brainy Quotes page for Anne Frank to find some inspiration for myself. Wonderful quotes there – full of love and hope and a steadfast belief in the power of good – and then at the end I came upon this one: “I’ve reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything to change events anyway.” And… yeah… that one caught me up short.
Of course Anne Frank was wrong about that – her words and thoughts have had a huge impact on mankind – although she wasn’t here to see it.
But her words got me thinking about my own place here. I don’t know if I’ll be around long enough to see a time when the world is, finally, at peace, and recognizes the rule and might of Love. But I want to be part of the movement that leads that direction, you know? I want to be part of the wave that pushes Love to the shore, even if maybe I don’t get to the shore myself.
But I get ascared sometimes. Sometimes I get frustrated. Sometimes I get angry. And discouraged. Sometimes I make humongo mistakes.
We are in times that test us – times that bring out the worst in mankind, and the best. And I really hope I can rise to the occassion (one c? one s? – that word gets me every time).
So. Those are my thoughts as I wake up on this morning of December 16, 2016.
Just thought I’d share.
Alrighty. Carry on then…
– Karen
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
– Anne Frank
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
– Anne Frank
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”
– Anne Frank
“I see the world slowly being transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”
– Anne Frank
“Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the ultimate triumph of any cause.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
Message to the Electoral College:
We have elected a man for President who may soon be going on trial for treason, who has admitted, on tape, to sexual harassment, who bilked thousands of students out of millions of dollars with his fake Trump University, who claimed bankruptcy and refused to pay his workers what he owed them and then walked away with billions of dollars, and who has no record of ever paying taxes to the nation he’s supposed to serve. He spends his days in tweeting wars (one of his tweets sent Boeing stocks plunging, another threatened diplomatic relations with China), and wants to continue his job as Executive Producer of The Apprentice while he serves as our President. He has nominated as Secretary of Education a woman who’s never attended public school, whose children have never attended public school, and whose main goal with public education has been to dismantle and “privatize” it. He’s nominated a man with ties to the KKK to be White House Chief of Staff. He’s nominated a man as Sec of Health and Human Services who’s openly said he wants to get rid of Medicare and “privatize” social security. He’s nominated as Secretary of Energy a man who’s said he wants to “scrap” the Energy Department.
This man is not fit to be the leader of the nation I love.
Thank you for taking the time to read the concerns of your fellow Americans, and for being willing to take on the huge responsibility of being a member of the electoral college. Your courage and wisdom during these uneasy times is much appreciated.
– Karen
(For those of you who wish to send your own message to the electors, go to asktheelectors.org and they’ll lead you through the process.)
“Who is telling mankind of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the danger and yet have given no warning.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
Christmas Eve, 1988. I was in a funk. I couldn’t see that I was making much progress in my life. My teaching career seemed to be frozen, and I was beginning to think my husband and I would never own our own home or have children. The world seemed a very bleak and unhappy place to me. No matter how many batches of fudge I whipped up or how many times I heard Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas,” I couldn’t seem to find the Christmas spirit…
Source: The Christmas Dog
The Good You Seek
I want to take a break, I said.
Can I step out of life for a moment,
or maybe stay in bed?
Can things go on without me?
Can you just pretend I’m not here?
For life is a messy business
and I’m tired and I’m weary
I’ve made too many mistakes to count today
And I’d like to not make anymore, not any.
And the still small voice reached into my thought
– gentle, peaceable benediction –
“All the good you seek and all that you’ve sought
you can claim right now – and that’s no fiction –
for Love is yours to express, to feel, and to be
– you are wealthy beyond description.
Nothing else matters, there’s no other power
no warring opinions, no need to cower
You are loved and you’re loving
and that’s all there is to it
Love’s loving child, and there’s nothing else
but loving, simply nothing.”
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from
A Poem Lives on My Windowsill <-purchase it here
Teardrop
A tear welled within my eye.
I held my breath and kept very still,
and for that few seconds,
the world was much clearer
through the lens of the tear.
– Xander Terrell, from
Dream Voyage <-purchase it here
Review for Finding the Rainbows: Lessons from Mom and Dad
“I read this book cover to cover with a smile on my face the whole time. The author’s engaging conversational style takes the reader along on her journey to resettle her parents from farm to assisted living and the love, gratitude, and simple joys of life she experiences during the transition. I highly recommend this book and it would make a great gift.”
Review for The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book:
“Charming and endearing to read. You sit with a grin on your face while reading.”
Review for Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist:
“Karen has touched my soul with her heartwarming and hilarious rendition of the road less traveled. Everyone I know has had to listen to me go on and on about how great a read this is! Whether you want to laugh, cry, or just smile about life again, read this!!!”
Review for The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book:
“I think Karen has reached into my heart,and planted the seeds of love. This book gives inspiration and hope to all that read with open hearts and love.”
Review for The Madcap Christian Scientist: All Things New:
“How inspirational, fun, and enlightening! As with the author’s two other Madcap Christian Scientists’ books, I thoroughly enjoyed this one for its honesty, spirit of adventure and enlightenment. It uplifted me without being preachy. The author graciously gives us a peek inside her life and mind and reader beware!!! She dares go there and everywhere! A great, fun read that I will recommend to others as I have with her other two. My only complaint was I truly wished she had written more and that’s just me being greedy!!”
Karen’s author page.
Xander’s author page
.
“God had been graciously preparing me during many years…”
– Mary Baker Eddy
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes that “God had been graciously preparing” her for many years for her discovery of spiritual healing. How did God “graciously prepare” Mary Baker Eddy? Well, let’s see… she lost a beloved brother at a young age; she was widowed shortly after she married her first husband; she was separated from her only son when he was just four years-old, and he was taken across the continent and raised by others; she was challenged with chronic health problems; and endured a failed marriage… for starters.
I’m grateful to say that nine years ago God “graciously prepared” me, too, for future challenges that I couldn’t foresee at the time. Nine years ago I began my journey through a massive depression. At the time I was going through the depression I didn’t see an end to it – I feared I would spend the rest of my life in mental agony. I felt hopeless, helpless, guilty, and fearful. I contemplated ending my life, lost my appetite, and felt like I’d lost myself, too. My struggles turned me to God, Love, in a way I’d never before turned to God. I clung to Love like a drowning man clings to a board on a stormy sea. In time, I learned not to battle the waves, but to surf on top of them. I learned that if I could love I had a reason to live. I learned I could be happy even when I was sad. I learned to focus on now and move from moment-to-moment, step-by-step. And when, in a year, I came out the other side into the light, I recognized my own strength, and the tender love God has for me, and for all Her creation. I came out of the depression with a fearlessness that I hadn’t had going into it. I felt reborn.
The other day I realized that I needed that experience in my life – it helped prepared me for the challenges my world is facing right now. At the time it seemed like the worst thing I’d ever experienced. Now, looking back, I realize it was a wonderful blessing.
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart…
– Psalms 10: 17
(Click here to behold a way cool rendition of Godspell’s Prepare Ye the Way that I found on youtube. This’ll get you in the Christmas spirit. 🙂 )
“Philanthropy is loving, ameliorative, revolutionary; it wakens lofty desires, new possibilities, achievements, and energies; it lays the axe at the root of the tree that bringeth not forth good fruit; it touches thought to spiritual issues, systematizes action, and insures success; it starts the wheels of right reason, revelation, justice, and mercy; it unselfs men and pushes on the ages. Love unfolds marvellous good and uncovers hidden evil. The philanthropist or reformer gives little thought to self-defence; his life’s incentive and sacrifice need no apology. The good done and the good to do are his ever-present reward.
“Love for mankind is the elevator of the human race; it demonstrates Truth and reflects divine Love…”
– Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellany, p 287-288, *Prose Works*
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 