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
Okay, I am a proud scone grandma and I’ve just got to share: The classic scone at SconeGrown in Bellingham, Washington, owned by my son, Xander, and my daughter-in-law, Kyla, was recently chosen by PETA as one of the top ten vegan desserts IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY!!! No, I am not kidding. It is, in fact, the only dessert in the Pacific Northwest to make the top ten this year.
I visited Scone Grown last week and had this tangy tastebud-pleasing delight – my new favorite scone – I present to you the orange spice scone with orange curd:
joyful, playful Life
blessings showered upon us
find the joy today
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
I’m trying to find the words to describe what the magic of yesterday meant to me. I woke up feeling unsettled. Disturbed. Scared even. Trying to find some peace about the state of our world. But one of my former eighth graders, Austin (who’s all grown-up now and father to an amazing grade schooler), gave me a huge gift yesterday that helped me remember what a wonderful world we live in. Austin invited me to help chaperone a group of youngsters on a four-mile birding adventure near Edison, Washington. It was cosmic, my friends. The snow geese flew circles around us – it felt like we were inside a snow globe of snow geese!; the trumpeter swans and Canada geese honked their greetings to us as they flew by; a mama horned owl eyed us from her perch above her nest; a seal raised his head above the Samish River; eagles flew all around us; and peacocks! – yes, there were even peacocks! – and I took a photo that proves that peacocks actually DO fly (sort of).
My lungs got all filled up with fresh air and my soul got all filled up with beauty today. I don’t know how to begin to thank Austin for this gift.
Go to this link for pics: https://bellinghambayblog.wordpress.com/2022/02/27/a-gift-of-fresh-air-and-birds/
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
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 