Sam the Wonder Dog died last summer. On her last drive to the vet’s her umber eyes were still bright and alert as she looked out one last time on the scene passing by – still engaged with this world.
And now I sit in the chair that we had accepted was her chair while she was with us. For the first time I no longer smell her fur in the fabric I nestle in. For months we tried to get rid of Sam’s smell – we vacuumed; we steam cleaned; we scrubbed with soapy rags – but the Sam-smell never seemed to leave us. And now, it seems, it has. And I think I might miss it.
I rub the fabric of the chair, and for a moment I feel like I am petting Sam’s sleek coat, and I feel her with me – warm and dear, an expression of Love.
Her body is gone, and her smell. But Sam’s still with us in her love. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
I am not a body. You are not a body. We are part of something bigger than a body. We are enveloped in infinity, embodied in the Body of Love.
The human body is a tool for my human experience. It’s no less than perfect because there’s no reason for it to be anything less than what I need it to be here, for me, as I move through the veil.
“Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.” * I am in control of the body-tool – the tool does not control me or determine my existence here. I wield it. It doesn’t wield me.
I am not a body. You are not a body. We are part of something bigger. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
*”Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.” – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
Well, dang. I just found myself getting caught up in the endless loop again – that spinning hamster’s hoop again – that weird compulsion we humans have to prove we’re right – to send our little egos out to fight in a battle that no one will win.
Hurling opinions and catpulting “facts” believing that where our data lands will bring us fresh new fans And getting frustrated when it doesn’t work out quite the way we planned.
Because that’s not how Love works! Love works in kindness – in the ties of caring that bind us. Love brings us together for each other – to help and hold and heal and to embrace what’s lasting and real. – Karen Molenaar Terrell
As you all know, I got vaccinated. Nobody needs to spend any more time and energy on me trying to convince me that I should get vaccinated because the deed is already done. And nobody needs to spend energy or time on me to convince me NOT to get vaccinated, either, because I’ve already been all shot up and there’s nothing that’s going to change that.
And personally? I am so done with the whole bad guys and good guys and blaming and shaming and name-calling and self-righteous indignation and calling other people “selfish” because they refuse to do something that terrifies them to make US feel safer (it might be useful to note here that the CDC reports that the unvaccinated aren’t the only ones spreading the virus). And people from both “sides” wishing each other sick – or even dead! – just to prove that they’re right.
For God’s sake, we need to stop.
It’s been my experience that telling people they’re “selfish” isn’t helpful. Bashing someone over the head again and again and again with our beliefs and thinking that will somehow convert them doesn’t seem to work well, either. Both the vaxxed and un-vaxxed have been slinging “facts” at each other every day since the vaccine appeared and I don’t see that the fact-slinging has brought us much progress in this battle. (Have you noticed that people only seem to hear the “facts” they want to hear?)
So I thought maybe I’d try slinging some kindness instead to see where that might take us. You know, we’re allowed to be kind to people even when we don’t agree with them, right? Asking people to be kind to each other isn’t “taking sides” – it’s just trying to bring some civility into an insane and scary time.
Here’s what, I think, matters in the end: Kindness matters. Love matters. Let’s be kind to each other – kind to both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Let’s reflect the love of Love; express the courage of Truth; manifest the joy of Life. Love, Truth, Life (God) doesn’t care whether we’re vaccinated or unvaccinated – She’s just going to keep on loving us whatever we do or don’t do. And I believe that’s what we should do for each other, too.
There were several dear unvaccinated friends who were in my thoughts as I wrote this post (none of them Christian Scientists, by the way – interestingly, my CS friends tend to get vaccinated and probably for the same reasons I did). I love my unvaccinated friends very much and I wish them nothing but good. We’re all in this together – both the vaccinated and the not. Love help us all.
We are of one Body We are of one Soul When you love another you love yourself and when you hate another you hate yourself We are all cells of the same Body. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
I’m nervous about this one. It’s kind of wordy and “out there.” But I just had this amazing cosmic experience and I had to share…
I wake and feel Life quivering around me and through me. The presence of Love is here and I am within the presence, connected to the Cosmic Body. Not a “Borg” body – not a matter-body of computer chips and nanoprobes – but the Body of Spirit, the Body of Love.
You are embodied in Me, too – not embodied in “me” – but embodied in the one Me – the one “I AM.” We are cells of the same Body. Not competitors. Not separate. But connected. Inseparable. What is good in you – all that is smart and courageous and beautiful and graceful – is good in My Body, too – for we are in the same Body, and have the same Body. All that is wise and kind in you – is mine, too, for we are in the same Mind. And all that is good in me is your good, too. We can claim all that is good – all that is OF Good – for our own.
Faces pass in front of my vision – loved ones who’ve died and loved ones who are with me, here. And I’m connected to all of them still – not separated by time or space or place in this Body of Love,
.And then other faces pass in front of my vision – people I’ve thought were my enemies, my rivals, my competition. And I see that they are embodied in Me, too – not the little me, but the big Me, the Cosmic Me. And the cells are distinct, but not separate. And I love them, too – we are all in the Body of Love.
I feel Earth breathing through my window smell her sweet breath of dew and life and know she is embodied in God’s body, too, and we are connected – all of God’s creatures and I.
Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Yes, Jesus is embodied in Me, too, and we are embodied in the one Body – not the body of the human Jesus, but the body of Christ – the Body of Love.
We are nothing less than the perfection of Love. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” – Matthew 26:26
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 2:5
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. – I Corinthians 12:14-18, 21, 25-27
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent…” – John Donne
“The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal.” – Mary Baker Eddy
Whatever spiritual, emotional and/or mental tools we each have acquired over the years – this is the time to use them. Our world needs every gift and talent we have to share. Be brave. Be kind. Be fair. Be generous. Love. Above all else, let’s love. Let’s love like there’s no tomorrow. Let’s love without limit or condition. Let’s love like the very existence of the world depends on it. Let’s let Love guide our every word and action.
But I’m alive right now – in this moment. And what am I doing with this moment? I’m going to take this moment to send out love. There. Did you feel it? -Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Fed by Thy love divine we live, for Love alone is life…” -Mary Baker Eddy
You are not alone. Know this. You are not alone. There’s nothing expected of you here There’s no obligation to me There’s nothing I require of you There’s nothing you have to do to earn my love You are worthy just as you are. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 