Story of hope in an unlikely place

People who care.  That's what it takes to make a difference.

In Zambia, at risk youth are being given an opportunity to move their lives forward.  About 200 young people were asked to think about their future.  They decided they'd like to go into business.  So the youths were taught how to do a market assessment and how to select a business that would manageable and profitable.

They chose a banana plantation.  This video shows their steps of hope.

Here's the link to the article in The Christian Science Monitor.

Who will stand by me?

There's a universal need to be assured that in the rough spots, in a crisis, somebody will be there for us.

This world-song expresses a yearning for that assurance.

I believe Christ, the true idea of God, is always here for us -- on the good days and during the rough ones, in the triumphs and in the crises, standing up for us, comforting, pointing the way to go forward.

The power of reversing

Some things are so obviously colored by our point of view -- by where we are coming from; by the people and experiences that have brought us to this moment; by how we have responded to the bumps and obstacles in our life journey.

Put twenty people on the same detour on the same morning, and you'll hear twenty different reports.

Sometimes we misinterpret something because we only heard half of what was said, because the introduction turned us off, or because our reaction was so vigorous that it drowned out the rest of the message.

For the following video, it's important to read and listen to the entire thing. Because you want to be surprised, be sure to stick it out!

Here's a clue: punctuation makes a difference.

I make all things new!

Weeds on a very cold January day.
Yet, come spring - there will be

new leaves and birdsong everywhere.

Saturday took me into Chicago’s gritty Englewood neighborhood where my friend lives and works. Side streets had not been plowed. In block after block, houses, some of them nice ones, had plywood windows – foreclosed.

These times are especially tough on those already hurting economically. People are put out onto the streets because they suddenly can’t pay mortgages – and perfectly good houses sit empty.

It’s a drug-infested neighborhood, and nobody wants to invest in it. So apart from a fried chicken franchise and a Family Dollar Store, there are few businesses, few local jobs. It's pretty barren.

My friends tell stories that make my heart weep. But at the same time, they have a vision for this community – what it once was and what it could be again. They are already seeing past the hopelessness and despair.

I don’t know how to unboard the houses and put mothers and children back into them; I don't know how to jumpstart the local economy.

I do know how to pray and support my friends’ courage and vision. Here are some promises from Isaiah that give me hope:

Isa 35:1 The desert will rejoice, and flowers will bloom in the wastelands.
The desert will sing and shout for joy:
it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon.
Everyone will see the Lord's splendor, see his greatness and power.

and

Isa 51:3 I will show compassion to Jerusalem, to all who live in her ruins.
Though her land is a desert, I will make it a garden, like the garden I planted in Eden.
Joy and gladness will be there, and songs of praise and thanks to me.

And from Revelation 21, the voice from heaven that says, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Hope and Renewal

Light breaking through

dark clouds in Jordan

Mishi, our Israeli guide on the Carroll-Fischer Holy Land tour, is a terrific teacher. He gave us lots of historic, political, Biblical, and geographical information – a small portion of which I wrote in my journal each day.

He cast helpful light on the ancient story of Ezekiel’s vision of resurrecting a valley full of dry bones into an able-bodied army. This story had always been a puzzle for me. Mishi explained it as promising fresh hope for Israel; that God could take a people who had died spiritually, had lost their hope, and revitalize them with life and purpose.

More broadly viewed this story gives hope for today, for everyone. God, whom I think of most often as ever-present divine Love, speaks even to those who feel spiritually dead, lost, discouraged – to revive hope and expectancy of good, to inspire with purpose and renewal.

With today's flakey economy, the anticipation of resurrection in this story is timely. A good God doesn't plan evil for His/Her creation; rather that infinite God has a useful and unselfish purpose for each of His/Her children. No matter how tough things seem, there is a way forward.

“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,” is a maxim because people have found it true. No situation is hopeless when a person is willing to turn to a power higher than themselves for an answer.

The catch is not to limit that answer by outlining how we think results should come about. What we think should happen is usually too small compared to God’s good plan. This divine Love has the broader picture, and knows what needs to happen to bless His/Her creation.

When I’ve been discouraged and small in my thinking, God’s grace has always turned out to be much larger than anything I could have imagined. That grace becomes active in my life as I let go of self-centered thinking, and become more interested in what I can do for others.

As I see it, God doesn’t play favorites – His/Her love is universal and impartial – equally here and now for you and me, for everybody.

Lesson from a bumble bee

A honeybee at work

An email arrived telling about a bumble bee.

It is said that a bumble bee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will die unless it is rescued. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the glass sides near the bottom. It will seek an exit where none exists, until it is exhausted.

Sometimes we are like the bumblebee. We find ourselves struggling against adversity and disappointment, too often looking for escape where there is none. Yet it is true that very often all we need to do is look up – literally and figuratively.

“Looking up” can have the meaning of looking beyond ourselves to what one friend fondly calls “the Higher Power.” She finds answers there too. She hears messages of comfort, patience, courage, and practical ideas for going forward.

The email concluded with this little reminder:
Sorrow looks back,
Worry looks around,
Faith looks up!

The cheetah, the hyena, and the gazelle

In the video below. A hungry cheetah has downed a gazelle to feed her cubs. Before she can complete the kill, a hyena bully, intent on stealing dinner, chases the cheetah away.

What happens next is a happy surprise.




So, if I may draw some obvious conclusions, the gazelle's startling escape reminds us that no matter how bad things look, there is hope.

I mean how much worse could things be? "Gazelle" is the gourmet featured main course of the day. In this case hyena greed and arrogance provide the opportunity for a second wind and escape.

For many people prayer provides a good state of mind for finding the way forward. It's a prayer that listens to (whatever name you call) God -- Allah, the Higher Power, or the Mind of the universe -- for some practical answers.

Want different results? Try something new!

And what, you may ask,

are these?

What would you do if you were one of many small Japanese grocery store owners, and watermelons were a problem? They are too round and rolly, and take up too much space.

Do you just live with the problem?

Creative Japanese farmers found a solution. Soon they were growing cube-shaped watermelons. While the melons are small, the farmers place them in a box, and as they grow, the young fruits take on the shape of the box.

Although this is a story about fruit growing inside a box, what a great lesson it serves for thinking outside the box!

How often we feel trapped because things “have always been” a certain way. Yet in the infinity of a universal Mind, there must be solutions even to situations that seem hopeless or discouraging. Adopting an attitude of hopefulness opens thought to new possibilities.

When our young family was applying for a mortgage to buy a home, I had unintentionally given an overestimate of my husband’s salary to our contact at the bank. When I discovered the mistake a few days later, I felt very discouraged. From what we had been told, his actual salary was likely to be insufficient for us to qualify for the loan.

We agreed to think outside the box of discouragement. Together we looked away from the economy and facts and figures, and instead to God as Spirit for solutions.

If this house was right for our family, we felt a universally good God would show us how it was to come about. If it was not the right place for us, then there was something more suited to our needs, and this caring God would help us find it.

As it happened, we qualified and lived happily in that home for many years.

While I didn't need to invent a box for shaping watermelons, I did learn an important lesson about being willing to take a new look at circumstances, to look for answers beyond the boundaries of how things appear to be.

Baby boom decline - unavoidable?

A friend forwarded part of an email conversation in which she protested the apathetic acceptance of "over-the-hill" thinking. You've seen it in greeting cards. People hold Over-the-hill parties. Ho, ho, ho. While there is some nobility in making the best of a bad situation, there is nothing funny about inevitable decline. (Names changed):

She and Jim were engaged in email conversation. He had sent one of those cutesy mass emails about Baby Boomers reaching Social Security age – and all the problems (so funny, yeah right!)

Jim and Ann are good friends, so she talk bluntly, and shared what she felt should be the Boomer email going around, and included some forward looking thoughts about aging, such as Eddy's statement in Science and Health that,

“Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.”

Jim shot back, "Three score & ten is a little short sighted these days, don't ya think?"

So this sent Ann to some research. “Yes,” she replied, “BUT - Since the average life expectancy when Eddy wrote that was about 45 – and 70 is about 60% more than that, we could take the average life expectancy at any time, multiply by 60 % , and change that sentence accordingly.

Furthermore, Ann googled and found that in 2004 the life expectancy at birth was 77.9 – let’s say 78. 78 x 60% means that her sentence, when put in the early 21st century scale would read:

"Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than sixscore years and five (translates to 125 years!) and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise."

That’s as wild as Eddy's statement would have seemed to the readers of her day! And the concept is as true today as the original was then. Which all goes to show that we have to stop measuring and limiting – even in “cute” ways!

Ann concluded, "That little word “except” is key to that sentence’s promise! And even a Boomer’s life embraces 'all that is good and beautiful.' ”

Why not expect good?

Who will stop

to admire this delicate beauty?

Have you ever looked right at someone you should have known, and not recognized that person? Perhaps you were in another state or another country and saw someone from home, but were slow to make the identity connection because you weren’t expecting to see him or her.

It happens.

The same animal trainer quoted in a recent blog tells of another horse, Pennies. This one was a hard-core bolter. Whenever anyone mounted him and asked him to move, he took off at a dead run.

Vicki Hearne understood how to communicate with Pennies, and showed him his innate dignity and graceful control of himself. As mentioned before, when his family came after a week to check on his progress, they did not even recognize the animal calmly trotting past them as their own.

It has to do with expectancy, doesn’t it? Even hope. They were looking for last week’s difficult horse. And they were not expecting their pet to be unruffled and composed, at least not so soon.

When we are trying to solve a difficulty - relationship, circumstance - are we expecting last week's obstinancy? Dare we hope for progress so soon?

You may remember the story where Jesus healed a blind beggar, and the man’s neighbors had a hard time recognizing him. Some asked, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

Others said, “No, but he does kind of resemble him.”

The former beggar joyfully exclaimed, “I am the man!” Jesus had showed him his wholeness.

The people mentioned here (horse trainer and Jesus) who initiated transformation were expecting good. And they saw the results of their expectations.

So we may well ask, Why shouldn’t we be expecting good? If we can agree that the creator of the universe is good, then good is real, natural, and present. And we don't have to feel helpless in the face of nasty politics, fragile economy, or personal wrestlings. Recognizing and valuing our own innate goodness we can to some degree often show others their goodness too.

Good is more prevalent than we realize. Just for fun, and by way of challenging the evening news, I made a quick list of good things I could think of just for this day. I stopped somewhere in the twenties, with a big smile, in order to continue writing this blog.

I highly recommend making such a list. It keeps life in proper perspective – where what’s innately right and excellent and cheerful in our lives is recognized as our present substance.

When the bricks fly

God whispers in your soul

This arrived in an email, and I had to chuckle.

“God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you.”

Sometimes it does seem like that! I’ve had a few bricks lobbed my way.

Whether we feel we have a close relationship to God, or would like to, or are wondering whether that is possible, or even whether there is a God, sometimes it feels like circumstances smack us.

Whatever that event, it can be a “heads up!” – a kind of forceful invitation to listen through the hubbub of the day to another voice, another message, something more significant going on. A word or two from the Creator Him/Herself. An opportunity to turn discouragement around.

This comfort doesn’t come from the world. The world’s promises are fleeting. The other side of the world’s clamor a certain stillness speaks, a peace and clarity about what’s important in life.

And if we aren’t paying attention to what’s really important, we need to. And we need to want to.

The world’s great thinkers have come to the same conclusion over the centuries. Chirst Jesus, spokesperson for Christianity, says it this way, “Love one another.”

Love isn’t complicated, sophisticated, or accumulated. Love is complete, simple, and active. The love that springs from the Creator of the universe is dependable in a changeless way.

So when the world whacks us with injustice, or hate where we expected acceptance, listen up! Past the tumult there is a message of security, support, and progress. And often a new sense of direction.

The message that God loves us is what is worth listening to and pursuing. This hope can take us safely through injustice and hate. This promise brings us to the place of knowing good is supreme no matter what.

Joyeux Noël, Merry Christmas

Christmas eve truce 1914

I know, it's July, and it's hot. But this is a happening with heart, and it cannot wait.

Joyeux Noël. Merry Christmas. True story.

A miracle works its way gently into the hearts and minds of troops shooting at each other from WW I trenches in France.

Three lieutenants – Scottish, German, and French – agree to a Christmas eve truce. Some 600 soldiers leave their rifles behind and tentatively cross the war-scarred frozen earth to exchange pieces of chocolate, share photos of loved ones, play soccer, and –- discover they do not hate each other.

By mutual agreement, they extend the truce to Christmas day -- so that each side can bury their dead.

When the Germans get word that the Scottish and French lines will be shelled in ten minutes, they invite their former enemies to take shelter in the German trenches. The allied troops reciprocate, and the Germans shelter in the allied trenches when the bombardment is returned.

The big brass arrive at the front and order firing to resume, but the soldiers will not fire at one another. Their Christmas truce is exposed, and they are all punished for fraternizing with the enemy by being sent to different and more dangerous fronts.

This story strikes home because my maternal grandfather was there. My mom’s father, Walter, was with those Scottish troops on December 24, 1914, and he told his children about that amazing Christmas Eve truce.

It’s hard to relate that war to Iraq and Afghanistan today – where there is no front, and the enemy is not obvious; where the danger is unseen ambushes and hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Yet the constant is universal humanity. The constant is one universal God who is Love. The constant is Christ, the divine goodness expressed in each of us. The constant is a universal yearning for peace and good-will.

Peace begins in the hearts and minds of individuals – you and me. We have it within our ability to bring peace to our own sphere – our families, friends, neighbors, colleagues. It's a place to start.

The Christian apostle Paul wrote, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

The more our lives are defined by our relationship to this God of Love, the more stable and grounded will be our inner peace, the more others will feel this calm. Inner peace allows intelligent, thoughtful, out-of-the-box solutions to emerge and influence the world scene.

One review of the DVD

Freedom - you and I can make a difference

One July 4th found me flying across the country at nightfall. I remember looking down and seeing from above all these amazing displays. Ahead and behind silent bursts of manmade color punctuated the darkness.

As I write, explosions pop and rattle this night. Bibs, the dark calico cat, isn’t exactly afraid, but she comes in and asks for assurance. I lift her up on the day bed where she commences a thorough bath.

These nation-wide community fireworks commemorate freedom – the American colonies’ successful break from their mother country, Great Britain about 231 years ago. The rallying injustice was taxation without representation.

Today different injustices demand our attention. We rejoice that Alan Johnston, the British journalist kidnapped in Gaza and held for 101 days, was released today. His sudden freedom symbolizes the release of all who in some way are captive to circumstances beyond their control. Enslaved by tribes, cultures, or businesses taking advantage of poor families willing to sell their children for cash, people with no voice are yearning for hope and freedom.

So what can we do? What difference can you and I make? I think it has to do with how we view God. If God to us is infinitely good, caring, and powerful, then we have hope that things can be better. If God is Love, Truth, and Mind as well, then we can expect our prayers to contribute to finding practical solutions for universal fairness and opportunity.

The God who requires His/Her creation to honor and praise Him, also provides us with the ability to discover how to do that. It is man’s nature to treat others as we wish to be treated. Deep down we are not at peace with ourselves unless and until we align thoughts and actions with that life-principle. Our universal need to be humane and to honor the dignity of all life will work its way to the surface and demand expression.

All people need to be free – more than personal freedom to do anything – the larger freedom to employ our intelligence and ideas on a broader scale to make the world a better place. Each of us can weigh in for good.

The moon, railroad tracks, and you

The senses are useful. They help us enjoy life – tasty things such as sweet strawberries, or blueberry pie, or a favorite soup. Through the senses we enjoy music and art. They also alert us to danger.


Yet they don’t always tell the truth. For instance in the railroad tracks photo two illusions leap out at us. An amazingly large moon hovers over parallel tracks that appear to meet in the distance beyond the photo.

In the other moonrise photo, below – how immense the moon appears.

Experience tells us that the moon doesn’t change size, that the tracks remain forever parallel. In fact the photos may have been fiddled with to give these special effects. We process what-appears-to-be-true and reject it for our contrary knowledge of what is really true so quickly, we don’t even think about it.


It’s helpful to participate in all of life with a willingness to step back and reassess what’s valid. If we accepted the illusion of converging tracks as reality, we’d never get on the train. If we believe that health for instance, is solely dependent on matter, we become restricted to what matter allows and permits.

If there’s a higher source of health, say God, or Truth, or Spirit, our whole life perspective begins to enlarge. The fetters of matter-based being start to fall away. Spiritual laws of Life find a place in our thinking, and somewhere an intuition kicks in that says there’s way more to life that the human senses are able to tell us.

What if the things we see are actually made of things we don’t see? So that where any material object appears to be, right there is really a solid spiritual fact expressing itself. And the spiritual fact is what’s true, what can be depended on.

The way this plays out for me is that anything negative or discouraging, can usually be traced to the limitations of believing matter is a reality, even a law-maker. Whatever is good and hopeful can be traced to that higher power called Mind or Truth. And that’s proving to be a good source for finding out what’s really true.

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It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.

Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.

Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, God,
and to the spiritual sense of being.
Mary Baker Eddy

You must not judge

according to the appearance of things,
But by the reality!
Phillips Modern English

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In praise of "the other grandma"

Molly is my counterpart – she’s the other grandmother of our shared grandsons.

Generous, kind, caring, and thorough, she raised her boys as a single mom out of necessity when her husband died young. They are responsible dads and husbands today, so it looks to me like she succeeded.

Recently retired from a long nursing career, she spends her free time helping others – an aunt, a neighbor, a friend. Her career skills make her welcome everywhere.

This year I had the privilege of witnessing her humanity at its best. Three times.

(First) Kathy had a medical emergency, and Molly called the ambulance, stayed at the hospital night and day, and then camped on the couch two weeks at Kathy's home until recovery was solidly underway. Patient, kind, never a cross word.

(Second) Weeks later we attended a celebration together, when my nephew’s girlfriend, Lynn, collapsed on the driveway. Molly was right there applying her nursing skills as somebody called 911. My nephew’s 13-year-old son Hank is very fond of Lynn, and was beside himself with anxiety, sobbing from the very depths of his being. The ambulance came and left with Lynn inside.

(Third) Seeing Hank’s despair, Molly came over and gently explained why, as a nurse, she felt Lynn would be just fine. Hank felt comforted. Grabbing the hope Molly had given him, he rallied; the tears and uncontrollable shaking stopped. Lynn rallied too.

More recently we were watching our grandsons play Park District summer baseball. We do squeeze some conversation into these sports outings, and Molly told me, “I just ask, ‘Where do you need me today, Lord?’ And I go.”

This touched me deeply. It explained the prayer back of all her good deeds. The unseen order of her ministry comes from her love for her fellow man, and her desire to serve God.

We are of different faiths. And I’m awed as she quietly lives her faith through her good works.

Mary Baker Eddy, the American woman who founded my faith, includes this poem in her autobiography. I'd say it fits Molly:

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Ask God to give thee skill
In comfort 's art:
That thou may'st consecrated be
And set apart
Unto a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch.
A. E. HAMILTON

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Related links:
Florence Nightengale

The Fern and the Bamboo - message of hope and expectancy

Ferns

Someone sent an email with a story about the fern and the bamboo.

A man was about to give up on the world. Before he checked out, he decided to have a last talk with God. He went for a walk in the woods and asked God to give him one good reason not to quit living.

So God showed him the fern and the bamboo. Turns out that if both seeds are planted at the same time and equally nurtured, the fern shoots up and is quickly beautiful. Each succeeding year the fern grows more luxurious.

Nothing at all happens to the bamboo seed for four years, despite the nurturing and tender care. In the fifth year a tiny, almost insignificant sprout appears. Within six months the bamboo is over 100 feet tall. For five years it had been growing a root system to support its height.

The moral is:

• Each of us has a different purpose.
• Each of us is beautiful and useful in God’s plan.
• We should be patient with ourselves while our root system is growing.
• We shouldn’t waste time comparing ourselves to others.
• Just do the best we know how, and God will be pleased.

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The fern and the bamboo story is a useful metaphor of hope, patience, and trust.

For me, it’s also helpful to know that the God who carefully plants and tenderly nurtures the seed is not remote and distant, but that He/She is right here – for us to lean on – in good times and bad. That He’s right here to answer our questions, hold our hand, guide our footsteps, shelter us from the storm. That because God is an infinite Mind, He is never too busy to care for any of His children. It’s what He loves to do most.

We love Him, the Bible says, because He first loved us. As we feel that nearness, that closeness, that tender oneness with Love itself, we feel connected with the rest of His creation. It becomes natural and easy to love, forgive, be kind and patient with others.

What did Jesus do?

My friend Rose said she really needs Jesus as her Savior. She needs him to show the way. When she is fighting discouragement, she looks to Jesus for some ray of hope. When she is struggling to forgive, she needs Jesus’ example of unconditional forgiveness in order to get there herself. When she is battling human will, she needs Jesus’ humble, “Thy will be done,” to overcome that strong emotion. When she feels angry, she seeks Jesus’ spirit of calm dominion to help her put down such stormy thinking.

When we feel we cannot go any further, Christ reminds us, “Hey good buddy, you aren’t alone. Didn’t I promise to be with you always? I’m here for you. Lean on me.”

When wrestling with choices, Jesus’ humanity is my favorite option. He was always doing kind things for people; his biographies (the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) read like a list of kind reassurances and healings:

“Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest.”
“Fear not.”
“Be not afraid.”
“Your faith has saved you.”
“Your faith has made you whole.”
“Go in peace.”

Leaning on Christ, the Spirit of Jesus' life, we can join Rose in looking for solutions in how he lived -- what he said and did -- and go forward in his peace.

"Peace be still" story
Related post: Clutter in our lives. See March 20, 2007.