“Be It Song, Sermon, or Science”

“Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be it song, sermon, or Science – blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

And in the spirit of that quote –

Here’s a song:
Here’s the first song I sang on “singsnap” – a song by Jason Mraz that feels like an anthem to the world – not just a love song between two people, but a promise to the planet: “I won’t give up on us…we’ve got a lot to learn, but God knows we’re worth it.”
https://www.singsnap.com/#/d/listen/1020508

Here’s a sermon:
We have just a tiny scrap of existence here
– a miniscule piece of our eternity –
to love and learn and live
and leave something good behind.
Let’s not waste it on nothings.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

In his sermon, The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond asks,“Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because there is some one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and love back? There is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and are beloved.” Drummond writes, “There is a great deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful, there is a great deal that is great and engrossing, but it will not last. All that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, are but for a little while…You will give yourself to many things; give yourself first to love.”

And here’s some Science:
Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed  by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics,  thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.  Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive  and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal.”
– from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

Here’s an example of the use of Science for a healing of a puffed-up hand:
Observation: My right hand appears to be puffed-up like a balloon.
Question: Can I use Christian Science to heal this puppy?
Hypothesis: If I use my understanding of Christian Science, then I will experience healing.
Predict: I predict my hand will be healed.
Test: I’ll use my understanding of Christian Science to heal the “ballooned” hand.
Analyze the data and draw a conclusion.
Present the findings:

November, 2011:
I woke up to find my hand inflated to twice its normal size, and really painful – I couldn’t bend my fingers or anything. My first thought was, “Well, this is interesting.”

I got myself dressed and drove to my workplace. I figured I’d just work around my inflated hand until it went back to normal. But when I showed my hand to my co-workers to see if they’d had any experience with something like this, they were all really scared for me. One of them told me about an allergic reaction that had nearly killed her son. Three or four other people mentioned that flesh-eating disease, or other serious infections, that had nearly killed them or their loved ones. Everyone advised me to see a doctor post haste.

Well, I really like my hand, you know – and the thought of losing it was pretty scary to me. So I called our family doctor right away and left work to see him. Normally he laughs with me about stuff, but this time he was not laughing. He was pretty serious, actually. He said he thought it was either a serious infection or rheumatoid arthritis – although my case wasn’t typical of either one of those because I didn’t have any open wounds and my joints weren’t inflamed. He wanted to start me on drugs right away – some to address the one thing, and some to address the other – and he wanted to run blood tests on me. I agreed to the blood tests, but I told him I didn’t want to start taking any drugs until I knew better what was going on with me. (The one or two times I’ve ever actually taken pharmaceuticals, I’ve always had a bad side effect from them. Also, when I’m working out a problem through Christian Science, part of the process for me is real-izing the “reality” of Spirit, and the nothingness of matter – and, in taking drugs, I’d, in essence, be giving power to matter, and working contrary to what I needed to do for a healing in Christian Science.)

So I didn’t take the drugs, I went in for the blood tests, and came home and called for prayerful support from a Christian Science practitioner.

Although there’s no template or anything for Christian Science healing – sometimes healing can come so quickly – instantly – with just a quick change of thought – that there’s really no process involved. But I usually start my treatments with an affirmation of God, Good, Love, as the only power, the only reality. My application of Christian Science to this problem probably went something like this:

I am the idea of Love and Truth and Life – eternally perfect and whole, healthy and active, unchanged, undimmed, loved, loving, intelligent, alert, aware of all good. The belief that I can ever be less than my perfect, ideal self, is a lie. The belief that I can ever be separated from Love, Good, God, is a lie. As an idea, I dwell forever within the consciousness of Love. I am the image and likeness of Love. I am the perfect child of perfect Love. I reflect nothing but Love, Spirit, Life, Truth, Principle, Mind, Soul. There’s nothing about me that is imperfect, for there’s nothing in my Father-Mother out of which imperfection could come.

And, for the treatment of my hand, I definitely handled the fear in my thought. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook: “Fear, which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for God… 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… ”

The next morning my hand was even MORE puffed-up. But the fear in my thought was completely gone, and – even though my hand didn’t appear better – I knew I was healed. By the second morning my hand was completely back to normal.

When I called the doctor’s office to find out what the results of the blood test were, the receptionist said that one of the markers in the blood test indicated rheumatoid arthritis, and they wanted me to set up an appointment with a rheumatoid arthritis specialist. I told her my hand was completely fine now. She was really surprised by this, and called a nurse to the phone to talk to me. I told the nurse the hand was deflated, and there was nothing wrong with me at all. She didn’t say anything right away – I could imagine her trying to process what I was telling her. She finally said okay, that if anything changed to let them know, but she guessed they wouldn’t “go any further” with it right then.

That was ten years ago and there’s been no return of the condition.

Conclusion: Love heals.



Frog Song

The earth is alive! –
the air filled with the aroma
of blossoms and freshly-cut grass
and vibrating with frog song
The day’s tension eases from me
and I feel myself falling gently
into the soft mother’s arms of spring –
my thoughts opening up, blooming
with the joy of the evening.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Click here to hear tonight’s frog song in our backyard.)

Love Sings to Me

I wake from a dream about mermaids
saving the world – don’t ask
And something in that dream
leads to a prayer for the world
But I’m thinking too small
and fear infuses my prayer
And I know this prayer isn’t going
to help the world. So I turn
my thoughts another direction
And walk into the waiting arms
of Love – And boom – right there! –

that is All. In All. Everywhere.

Love sings to me – songs of joy
songs of confidence, sweet, soothing
songs of peace and hope
Songs from the astronauts
moving among the stars.
Songs  from the soldiers returned
from war to a warm embrace.
Songs from the climbers standing
on the summit at last.
Songs from mothers and fathers
tucking children safe in their beds.

Songs from sleek otters rollicking in the Sound
and shimmering fish swimming in a stream
and lizards basking on a toasty rock
and herons spanning dinosaur wings
above me and butterflies flitting
among summer blossoms and leaves
skittering across autumn sidewalks
and spring daffodils turning their heads
towards the sun and sparkling
snowflakes falling gently on the cedars.
Songs from the mermaids in my dream.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Child of Mine”

Last week my dear FB friend, Caroline Martin, asked me to collaborate with her on putting together a youtube video featuring her beautiful song, Child of Mine, and my photography, Neither one of us had ever made youtube movies from our music and photos before and I had no idea, really, how to go about this kind of thing – but I said “yes” – how hard could it be, right? – and trusted that, once again, Love would lead the way as we entered a new adventure.

Serendipitously, I’d learned just a few weeks ago from my friend, Amy Duncan, how to put captions to my photos on pixlr.com. So after listening to Caroline’s song, and writing down the words to it, I went to pixlr and started adding the lyrics to photos that I thought might work well with the song. Then yesterday – also serendipitously – one of my high school students mentioned that most computers now come with free movie-making thingies – so I checked out my computer, and sure enough, there was a movie-making program I could download.  I added Caroline’s song and my photos to the movie-making thingy – et voila! – we had our movie!

Note: In the collage at the end of the movie there are four pictures – photos of Caroline’s beautiful children – that were not taken by me. They are great shots, though, and I would not be surprised to find that the ever-talented Caroline Martin took them herself. 🙂

If you go to the youtube link below our collaborative effort should appear…

1

One Last Song

Without any words you sat down at the piano one last time before heading off on your new adventure. You knew I would come and hear – pulled by that irresistible sound of your fingers on the keys – and all in a flash I saw you again as a toddler – the back of your round little downy-haired head as you sat on my lap at the piano, your tiny fingers pushing down on the keys, then your face turning up to me, a grin of pure glee there… is there anything more powerful than love?