Symbols for the times –
BLM posters in windows
and fingers in the peace sign,
banners of rainbows
and cars in a COVID-testing line.
Sunflowers and masks,
and knitted pink hats,
Taking a knee,
and piles of requests
to save the bees,
Fans waving flags of yellow and blue.
A world in labor,
birthing a world that’s new.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Last night:
Yikes! I have gotten myself into a weird internet loop tonight. I keep clicking into FB and my email and other internet sites, expecting to get answers to questions I don’t even know to ask.
I am now going to scramble out of this vortex and turn off my laptop. Maybe grab a book and head to bed. Sweet dreams, my friends! Tomorrow we get to start fresh!
Here’s tonight’s offering before I head to bed:
Rebirth
the old me died yesterday –
and took with her all the guilt
and resentment, the squabbles
and ego battles and losses
and victories – none of that
can touch the new me
she is beyond it
and a new expression
emerges – a new identity
new day, new she, fresh start–
all things new
-Karen Molenaar Terrell, from Since Then
“Behold, I make all things new…” – Rev 21
she died yesterday –
and took with her all the guilt
and resentment, the squabbles
and ego battles and losses
and victories – none of that
can touch her now
she is beyond it
and a new expression
emerges – a new identity
new day, new she, fresh start
– all things new
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
– Isaiah 43:18,19
Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn, MT
Our world is in labor.
It’s painful to watch
and painful to go through.
But there’s a birth going
on here. Or a rebirth.
Something beautiful is going
to be born of this. I feel it.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
An alpine butterfly flits among the flowers on Table Mountain. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
Took an early morning walk and when I stepped out of the house I found myself totally immersed in birdsong, and the smells of blossoms and new green growing things. Started singing the Easter song to myself (with words by Frances Thompson Hill): “Let us sing of Easter gladness that rejoices every day. Sing of hope and faith uplifted, Love has rolled the stone away…” And as I got to that part in the song there was a break in the clouds, and the sunshine landed on my face – warm and reassuring – a blessing, a benediction…
Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man.
– Mary Baker Eddy
***
I’m thinking about the stone that Love has been rolling away from my heart over the years – the ego, blame, self-will, guilt, fear, anger, selfishness, sense of being “put upon” and treated unfairly – and, though there’s still more stone-rolling needed in my consciousness, I’m so very grateful for the progress so far – so grateful for the light that’s reached me – so very glad to be alive – to be able to experience the birdsong and blossoms and sunshine of an Easter morning.
And here’s a cool thing – hope, renewal, love, joy – those things don’t need to be limited to some traditional church holiday, do they? Haleleujah, brothers and sisters! 
We can have the glory of an Easter morning EVERY day…
…Every day will be an Easter
Filled with benedictions new.
– Frances Thompson Hill
(Post originally published on April 20, 2014)
I woke up feeling young again… 🙂
photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
Dear friend –
I know you’re going through a rough patch right now. But I’m here to tell you – you WILL get through this. You are experiencing your rebirth. It might not be without pain, but, trust me, when you come out on the other side – and you WILL come out on the other side – you will realize that it was all worth it – all of it. At some point you’ll begin to recognize that the pain doesn’t last forever. Just as in childbirth, the pain will come in waves – accept it, sit in it, don’t try to fight it, learn what you need to learn from it . And just as in childbirth, the pain will recede – but it won’t leave you where it found you – it’ll push you closer to your own rebirth.
You will come to realize that right where there is uglines, unfairness, and injustice – in that exact same place and time – there is incredible beauty and good and kindness.
You’ll realize that even when you’re depressed, you can be happy.
And you’ll realize that there is a purpose for you . So long as you can love, the world needs you – the world needs your kindness and compassion and wonderful, wonderful heart! The world would be a a far lesser place without you in it – believe that!
You are not a failure. You are not a loser. You are not worthless. In the words of Max Ehrmann, you are a child of the universe and you have a right to be here.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. – Max Ehrmann
WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of being. – Mary Baker Eddy
***
“It won’t do you a particle of good to enter upon a career of self-condemnation. Remorse never got anybody into heaven. A sense of regret and all that sort of thing is not the process. The process is reform; it is change; it is correction…” – Edward A. Kimball
“Evil is never disposed of as thought it were something. It cannot be given up as though it were something… Try to realize that through Christian Science, you are constantly gaining that which will do everything for you, and that you will succeed according to the gaining process.” – Edward A. Kimball
“Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God appoints you, and it is having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and uinselfish, and kind, and courteous… Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles… character grows in the stream of the world’s life. That chiefly is where men are to learn love.” – Henry Drummond
“Sometimes you have to lose your mind to come to your senses.” – Dan Millman
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
“For lo, the winter is past…The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” – Songs of Solomon
“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, – all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.” – Mary Baker Eddy
“Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature…You have to put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past and future, as well as your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see, hear but not hear. Your total presence is required.” – from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
***
When spring arrives, I feel my heart start to sing. I walk out the door and am surrounded by the joy of creation – birds singing, lambs bouncing around in the fields, daffodils bringing their cheery sunshine to the meadows, the smell of newly-mowed lawns and pungent blossoms filling the atmosphere – and it feels like a party, a celebration, a gift. In the spring, it’s easy for me to feel the playful, joyous presence of my Father-Mother God, Love.
There’s this great line from Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) : “Life will find a way.” That’s what Spring feels like to me – like Life is just bursting out all around me, breaking through the winter, clothing the trees with new leaves, unfolding in the blossoms – and bursting out of me, too. There is renewal here. Nothing can stop it. Life is finding its way.
Lately I’ve made a conscious effort to shut out all the dialogue that’s continually going on in my head and just tune in to the sights and sounds of the world outside me – the birds singing, the whooshing sound the leaves on the trees make, traffic in the distance – and I’m seeing things maybe I never noticed before – individual petals on flowers, the flickering of individual leaves, the changes from one moment to the next – and it’s just amazing the way everything around me is moving in harmony, dancing to some universal rhythm – and everything is where it should be, moving where it should move, filling its own niche, serving its own purpose.
I know many people consider God to be a supernatural being. But I consider God to be supremely natural – the name for all that is good – Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love (synonyms for “God” given in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy). In the spring, it’s easy for me to see evidence of Her everywhere – in the harmony and rhythm of a continually unfolding creation, and in the joy and energy of new life.
For me, springtime represents the constant “newness” of life, a rebirth, an opportunity for new beginnings.
***
Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Black bird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word!
Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning.
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise ev’ry morning,
God’s recreation
of the newday!
– words by Eleanor Farjeon
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 