The joys of sunlight

Posted on February 28, 2017 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Kapiolani Park

Good Evening, God!

I find even rainy grey days lovely. But, it is hard to resist a bright blue sky — especially when reflected in a quiet pond, and surrounded by green grass. There is indeed something healing about going for a walk outdoors in the sunlight.

Just the other day, I was reading an article in Dr. Mercola’s website about the healing uses of light — Photobiomodulation he called it. I am going to have to reread it, God. But one sentence that leapt out at me was: What this means is that the red light at 630-660 nm will provide the same mitochondrial benefits as the near-infrared range of 810 to 830 nm.

Mitochondrial benefits from being exposed to red light and near-infrared light? Mitochondria are more and more in the news. I remember reading — years ago — Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Wind in the Door about the hero Charles Wallace being ill from an illness of his mitochondria. And now it appears to be a key to our good health.

We are learning so much, God. So much more than we can easily or quickly assimilate! Yet, it does seem sometimes as if You are helping us notice important stuff. Thank You!

Tagged with: mitochondria, Photobiomodulation
Posted in connecting, God's Light, Light, Sunlight explored, the Light of the World

Noticing and Appreciating

Posted on February 26, 2017 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

autograph tree flower

Good Evening, God!

Imagine my DELIGHT when I saw the autograph tree in the Kokua Market parking lot with 4 or 5 blooms on it. I think this makes the third or possibly the fourth time I have caught this kind of tree in the act of blooming. These trees are ALWAYS full of the round, hard fruit. But they seem able to do that with only a very short flowering. The last time I saw a flower, it was getting brown and old. So to see five fresh translucent flowers was a joy.

And now I’m thinking, will anyone else care? Gosh, God, probably not. I don’t suppose that many folks make a point of looking for this particular flower. Still, I wanted to share MY joy!

The love of sharing — there must be a gene for it! But, perhaps it is nurture as well. I do remember my mother pointing things out — appreciating things.

Noticing the world around us . . . the people around us . . . and appreciating what we see . . . and hear. These are what make for a rich and rewarding life.

And when what we notice is upsetting? That is when we most need to pray. Praying for Your Love to bless and heal and help. Praying that way may not change the person I am praying for . . . but it does change me.

Often I see in myself what was distressing me in another. Ah, yes! It is so much easier to notice our own “flaws” in someone else. Thank You for helping me “notice” that!

Tagged with: the wonderful web of life
Posted in a prayer for healing, appreciation, connecting, Prayer, praying, Praying for our enemies, Sharing, the joy of sharing

What if Health were this simple?

Posted on February 25, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

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Good Morning, God!

9 cups of veggies a day? Really? Dr. Terry Wahls used food to heal herself and is using it to help heal others from chronic diseases. I am reading her book: The Walhs Protocol. Let me see — each day eat: 3 cups of greens, 3 cups of bright colored root veggies like beets and winter squash, and 3 cups of sulphur containing veggies like broccoli, chard, onions and garlic. Hmmm.

Well, my wonderful husband Kit and I are moving that direction. Today I will stop on the way home from my outing and buy MORE vegetables.

It is so clear to me, God, that — when our wonderful Western Medicine offers no hope at all — we might as well do what Dr. Wahls did and look around for things to try. Trying simple things like reducing toxins and increasing nutrients to help our very small but essential mitochondria keep all our organs working.

I found it particularly interesting, God, that the cells of the Brain, Liver, Heart and Eyes have the most mitochondria in them. Isn’t our population suffering from illnesses of just those organs.

Hmm.

Tagged with: Dr. Terry Wahls, mitochondria
Posted in Books, connecting, developing helpful definitions of love, Eating for health, hope, Hope as a gift from God, The daily details of love, the essential nature of hope

Trusting and Savoring

Posted on February 24, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

mist and bows Good Day, God

Some days are like rainbows of sharing . . . filled with talking and listening. And like rainbows, a good conversation often seems to be lit by Your Presence.

These days I am savoring conversations — with my wonderful husband Kit and our beloved daughters — and with a delightful assortment of friends. Iʻm also enjoying working together with folks on Projects. I find that — somewhat to my surprise — I have ROOM for New Friends! And that in itself is a delight.

Now that the election is over, I find that my trust resides more and more in You, God. Iʻm realizing that my trust used to be in The World as I Knew it . . . continuing on. Ah yes.

Now I am so much more AWARE of how the Present is Becoming the Future. It is almost as if I can feel The Greening Spirit that Hildegard of Bingen talked about wanting to come in. . . wanting to be part of creating our Future. I guess, God, that My Version of the future was a “constriction,” and “constrictions” are limiting. Fears are also constrictions. Hmm.

My Centering Prayer time is becoming more and more valued by me, God. My pushy — bossy even — conscious mind gets only snippets. Snippets like No Constrictions! I used to be unhappy about only getting snippets. Now I realize that it is just as well, God that I donʻt hear more of what is going on inside me.

So I sit. Centering in Trust. Opening to You and to Your Greening Spirit in that Cloud of Unknowing.

Tagged with: Hildegard of Bingen, savoring conversations
Posted in Centering Prayer, connecting, Future, God's Time, Greening Spirit, time

Let Them Eat Dirt — Germs and Words

Posted on February 24, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

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Good Morning, God!

I was reading about how the author of this book will be speaking at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. WOW! I’d really like to go. But, maybe I will just read the book he wrote: Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World.

There have been a fair number of books talking about this topic in recent years — but we cannot repeat the message too often! WE NEED TO CARE FOR OUR MICROBIAL WORLD! I’m still staggered by the factoid that each of us has 10 trillion human cells and 100 trillion non-human cells. That is some ratio. I think of them as Guest Workers, long time immigrants like mitochondria, fungi, viruses, bacteria etc. Really, God! We are just beginning to get to know them and what they do to keep us healthy.

This is a dramatic change in perspective for us Western Cleaners. The phrase the Cleanliness is next to Godliness was believed! Still, in my childhood I played in a sand box . . . as did my grandsons. Hands were to be washed before eating . . . but not with portable hand sanitizers.

And just for a minute I will reflect on how our Food Industryʻs zeal to product cheap (profitable) food has resulted in creatures being raised so that they require antibiotics — in effect raising ever more resistant bacteria along with the animals. Sigh.

It occurs to me God that fighting something makes it stronger. Peaceful co-existance anyone?

Tagged with: Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World
Posted in A Spiritual Spring Cleaning, Books, Changing, Cherishing our Bodies, Cleanliness, health, Peace, Self Care

The Importance of Prayer

Posted on January 20, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

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“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Hi God,

Those words of Timothy, from so long ago, are a big help to me. I am finding that praying for people who upset me helps me see them a bit more as You see them. You love them. You want to help and heal them. Wow! And as I pray for them to receive Your help and love, I find that I am praying for myself, too. It helps me to trade my fear for peace and myanger for compassion.

Still, after years of mostly depending on my fellow human beings — for which I apologize — I am awake enough now to want to put my whole weight on You. What surprises me, God, is how slow I have been to wake up.

What with a huge ice berg about to break off of Antartica and the high tides in in Honolulu washing sand over the wall . . . over the beach walk . . . and onto the grass — given all of that, I ought to have realized some time ago that my species REALLY needs help.

I was going to say that our beloved Planet Earth needs help. But, our Planet has seen mountain ranges rise, oceans fill up the entire central North American and ice ages come and go. So, I guess, God, it is the fear of the world as I know it changing that distresses me.

Change is distressing. But, it is particularly distressing, God, because I know that I have to change, too. I feel that I need a “growth spurt.” I’m not at all clear about what I mean. I just sort of sense that I need to make more ROOM in my day and in my Mind and Heart for YOU.

You are WANTING to help and WAITING to help. Not just me, but all of us. Thank You!

Posted in a prayer for healing, accepting my need for help, asking for help for myself, connecting, Heal Us Now, healing, Help me to see, Prayer, praying, Praying for our enemies

Speaking up for Respecting One Another

Posted on January 9, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

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Good Evening, God!

Speaking up. Speaking out. Caring for those who are not respected. That is a pretty good description of what we all need to be doing — to meet the challenge of Our Times.

And, harder yet, we need to defend those being disrespected without being disrespectful ourselves. Because Disrespect begets Disrespect. Meryl Streep made that very point in her Golden Globes talk accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award. I just watched it. And I watched the video of Trump imitating a disabled reporter, that she referred to, too. Meryl stressed the importance of respecting one another and the responsible use of power — quite respectfully.

What it made me think about, God, was my personal responsibility. I must commit myself to both think and act respectfully . . . and to speak and act in defense of those being disrespected. Those being bullied . . . being made fun of . . . being treated as Less Than.

Maybe, it begins by not thinking I am more than? I have to admit, God, — that in this political season — if the Right has been angry and hateful . . . the Left has been dismissive and condescending.

OUCH! It hurts me to admit that. But I have been guilty of disparaging others and I need to clean up my heart.

Just because someone sees the world differently does not make them less than me. That sort of “worship” of being right . . . makes for deep divisions and enough disrespect to cover the World.

Help us God to see that Respecting one another is everyone’s responsibility.

Tagged with: Golden Globe, Meryl Streep
Posted in A Spiritual Spring Cleaning, Caring, connecting, respect, Responding, responsibility

The Purpose of Evil

Posted on January 7, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

in the belly of the beast

Good Evening, God!

This election has been hard on me — a trauma. I’ve been SO UPSET. But finally I realized the horrible effect my response was having on me. Boy, God, that was an eyeopener! I had become angry (OK, hateful), judgmental, seriously depressed, and generally depleted of both energy and hope.

DUH! THAT is exactly the effect “evil” wanted. (By evil I am not referring to individuals but rather to the behavior of believing that “being right” justifies Fake News, Outright Lies, Character Defamation, Encouraging Hate, etc.) Evil wants to push and pull us into a Reactive State where we become JUST LIKE what is upsetting us! It is like how a person who is angry WANTS to pick a fight and make someone else angry, too.

So, the other day after Centering Prayer, the thought came to me that we are all part of a Cosmic Replication War. Evil wants to create more evil. Good wants to create more good.

Looking at evil at work . . . it seems to me that its apparent goals are just “extras.” Its real purpose is to create Fear, Hate, Anger, Judgments, Apathy and Hopelessness. Evil wants to create a negative field. A Negative Field which drains our energy. A Negative Field that makes us vulnerable to Evil.

I am finding, God, that Your Advice (Command) to PRAY for those who despitefully use us — or those we love — is extremely helpful in keeping my energy from being drained. Blessing the Troubling Ones . . . Praying for them . . . Sending Love out into the Cosmos. These are powerful ways to protect myself — and my Energy Generator — from being sucked into evil.

It also keeps me from squandering my energy so I can use my energy to respond positively and creatively.

And, it is the Good Thing to do.

Tagged with: Responding to the Election
Posted in Anger, Blessing, Centering Prayer, connecting, Darkness, Evil, hate, Judgmental, Prayer

A New Understanding of Patience

Posted on January 5, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Good Day, God!

It is a marvelous gift to discover an Improved Definition for a useful/important word — Patience. I used to read it in the list of the Gifts of the Spirit and think — hmm, did I really want it? It was just slightly better than Self Control.

That was most likely because I did not have the gift of patience. If fast is good . . . FASTER is BETTER. So, my understanding of Patience . . . when I thought I was exercising it . . . was to clench my jaw and work at not saying anything impatient.

Then, just a few weeks ago I realized that Patience was a Relaxed Awareness that Everything was Proceeding (or not) at its Appointed Pace.

I guess, God, that while I wasn’t looking . . . and certainly not asking . . . You must have given me the Gift of Patience. Because this new understanding just “arrived.” I don’t remember reading it. I don’t remember anyone “explaining” it to me. It was just there.

And, it is a timely gift. My need for patience is growing . . . I require more time to do things. And I use it when I am NOT doing things.

Hmm.

I clearly need to balance Patience with Self Control. And, yes, God. This time I am asking!

Posted in connecting, developing helpful definitions of love, Gifts of the Spirit, God's Time, Holy Spirit, Patience, self-control, time

Angels Still Here — Wanting to help us

Posted on January 1, 2017 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Angel still on watch

Good Evening, God!

My wonderful husband Kit and I actually ate early enough to go for a walk around our block and this angel is still on duty. I love the Christmas Lights. I love the whole idea of Christmas. This morning our Pastor Brandon talked about how — coming as one of us — You had skin in the game. You know us . . . know how we feel! And, although as Creator You know ALL about us, it is comforting to know that You know how we feel. Know how hard it is to be human.

We want to be kind and loving. And You have designed us to be kind. When we see ONE child hurting we rush to help. But, when there are hundreds of thousands of hurting children — we go numb and helpless. We forget to ask You for help and for wisdom.

Actually, I fear that we forget about You most of the time. Forget? Or don’t know? Don’t know that You LOVE all of us.

Your love is the foundation of my life, God. It allows me to see myself and then forgive myself. And if I have forgiven myself then why not others? It allows me to hope. Not because 7.5 billion people getting along in hard times . . . which are getting harder . . . is easy. Not at all!

But with Hope and a sense of Your Love — I can dare to try to contribute. Dare to speak for love and for the strange idea of blessing and praying for those who are “troubled” and “troubling”. That is such a radical idea, God! But, I rather think it is the only path that will work.

So, with Your help, I am committing myself –once again — to Your Way of Love.