I can’t sleep and go to my friends’ FB walls treasure-hunting for hope; for love that calls to all creation; for jewels of inspiration and wisdom that go beyond human rules and resonate with the rhythm beating in my own heart. And I bring back these gifts: A poem about father-love; A photo of a puppy nestled in her new human’s arms; A painting of a golden sunrise; Posts about epic bike rides and happy-together times; Pictures from mountain climbs; The blessing from a flute; Photos of home-grown fruits; and everywhere magic. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
There’s a large part of this story that’s not mine to share and I’ll leave to my friend to share if she wants. But I think I can share this part:
Looking back on Facebook at the history of our friendship, it looks like we met on November 8, 2018, and became immediate friends. I was taking my walk on the Bellingham boardwalk when I first met her. It was a cold day. She wore a hat, I remember. I recognized a kinship – I saw in her expression a shared experience. I opened my heart to hear her story and she poured her heart out to me. Heart-to-heart. I felt so privileged by that – by her trust in me.
I understood some of what she was going through – I’d gone through a similar experience about ten years before. I’m not sure what I said to her. I might have told her that I understood – that I’d been there, too – that I knew she was in a scary place – but that she was also in a really amazing place – that she was completely free to create a whole new life for herself and that I knew that was scary, but that I thought she’d find it was also really exhilarating. An adventure!
I went home and found her on FB and discovered we had a bunch of friends in common. That was cool. And I asked her to be my FB friend.
Through the last four years we’ve sometimes run into each other by magic – not purposefully, but always perfectly. We’ve come upon each other at rallies and in the supermarket and walking along a street. When it was my turn to get a COVID vaccine, I was a little freaked out, and I contacted my friend because I knew she was working at the vaccination site and I knew I could count on her to help walk me through what I had to do. She was a blessing to me during that time.
And today I ran into her at the supermarket. She shared with me that last weekend, through her new role at work, she was in a position to help someone who told her that she “most likely” had saved his life.
As she was sharing her story I started crying. And then she started crying. And we hugged and cried and laughed together. She asked me if I remembered where she was when we’d first met, and I nodded and said, “And now you’re saving lives!”
In the last few days, I’ve felt the Cosmos reaching out to me with hope and reassurance and love. I’m being constantly reminded of all the Good in the world. I’m so grateful for that.
I was working in the yard when our neighbor walked by with his daughter and his little five-year-old grandson.
Karen: Dmitri, you’ve grown so big! It’s so good to see you again! (I wave.) Dmitri waves back and then runs across the lawn to give me a big hug. I feel my eyes tear up a little bit. Karen: Dmitri, it’s been a long time and you might not remember me, but… Dmitri: (looking up at me) I remember you. I remember you like hugs. Karen: And that’s why you gave me a hug? Dmitri: (nodding) Yes.
May the little children of the world save us, one heart at a time. ❤
Sunset over flooded fields in Skagit County, Washington State. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
So much has changed in the last day, week, year – and I feel great fear. But then Clara Kitty curls up on my lap and I see Love is still here and a butterfly flutters by the window and flits through the blue sky and I feel Life moving ‘round me in an eternal satisfied sigh. Life and Love: what’s true and real can never change or die. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
It is time, my friends. It is time to blast the world with over-the-top joy. It is time to roll out our big cannons of jocularity and good will and rain humongo missiles of love and kindness upon the mental landscape. It is time to step up to the front and lock arms with one another and protect the battered, bullied and beleaguered with the unbreakable shield of Love and Truth. We are in control here. With Love leading the charge, we are not the beaten, but the unbeatable. May the bullies, bigots, and busybodies be transformed by your unbreakable courage. May the stodgy and stingy be transformed by your irrepressible good will to all.
The time for the kind-hearted has come! Amen. Karen
“Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.” – Mary Baker Eddy
“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good.” – Mary Baker Eddy
This is what happens when you give a little kid (me) a virtual pack of crayons. Rembrandt, I ain’t. But I needed something cheery on my wall, and I ain’t apologizing.
The promise will be fulfilled – joy, peace, love, hope – all of creation living in rainbow light. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
Dear young friend, I remember thinking my life was over at your age when he no longer loved me I couldn’t imagine how I’d go on how it would be what the future would hold for me I thought I’d never find anyone else who would love me like he had I imagined going through life alone without love, without connection, without a family or home of my own
I wanted to die
And now here I am forty years later and so grateful that relationship didn’t last because I wouldn’t have what I have now – my family, my home, my career – if that first relationship hadn’t crashed and all the time between then and today all the distance traveled all the lessons learned has made me see what a laughably small part that relationship held in my life or my heart
dare to live dare to move on and see all the magic life holds yet for thee as long as YOU can love you have a reason to be -Karen Molenaar Terrell
This moment you’re living and breathing, loving and wondering and being. Take note of this. Mark it on your calendar with a grateful kiss. “This moment I lived and breathed and loved and was.” Because. I could. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
So let’s say we knew, for instance, that our world was heading towards its doom. Let’s say, for instance, that a superpower had invaded, unprovoked, a neighboring country and was pulling other nations into a world war. Let’s say that a tyrant had somehow managed to build a following and get himself into power in our own country, and, after losing a legitimate election, was doing everything he could – criminal, illegal, dishonest things – to get himself back into power. Let’s say that there were more guns than people in this country (120.5 for every100 people, let’s say) and that it didn’t look like our country’s leaders were going to try to get control of that any time soon. Let’s say that more than 311,000 students had experienced gun violence in schools since Columbine. Let’s say that plastics, fossil fuel consumption, overuse, misuse, and abuse was destroying our oceans, land and air. Let’s say that even the basic right to have control over our own bodies was being threatened. Let’s say there was talk of Civil War. Let’s say things looked like complete crap here.
What then? Would we give up? Would we just resign ourselves to our collective fate and spend our time here shivering in fear, waiting for death, holed up in our hidey holes? Or… would we use our time here to try to find solutions? Would we view every new day as another chance to love and be kind and to make a new friend and make something beautiful?
not what’s now, nor what’s ahead – not what’s past, nor what I may dread – not what I’ve gained or what I’ve shed; nor what’s living or what’s dead; neither the foot, nor the head; neither what follows, nor what led; neither what’s read, or said – alpha or zed – separates me from the All that is Good and mine to claim -Karen Molenaar Terrell
(This is a piece of another poem that I re-worked to turn into something new.)
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 