365 Days of Spiritual Sharing – Nancy Pace

 

 

Every day that I can, I meditate/pray/ (or whatever word you might care to call it) as early as I can. Usually I have personal questions or issues that seem pressing that day, so I attempt to articulate them, along with any guilt and fear I might be repressing—both before and during my meditation. Then I do some reading from a variety of inspiring sources. Then I summarize my “sense” of what I felt or learned from that day’s meditations, questions and reading, in a brief “Spiritual Sharing.” The whole process usually averages about an hour, although sometimes it takes just a few minutes.

 

I don’t profess any knowledge at all other than my personal experience and insights—certainly no universal religious beliefs. I do try to follow the teachings and example of Jesus, and thus consider myself a Christian. But beyond Jesus’ teachings, I am a mystical agnostic, in the sense of not “knowing” anything except in an experiential, scientific, personally-mystical or spiritual sense. I do have a very personally-designed faith in certain practices, a faith which works for me. I make no claims that I “know” what is true for everyone or that I am “right” in any of my spiritual conclusions. I am a strong advocate of interfaith understanding, dialogue, respect and support, I believe that we can all profitably share our truths with one another, and that God awaits us in all contexts. I am also an admirer of the humanitarian work and spirit of all secular seekers.

 

I see my written daily “Spiritual Sharings” as personal expressions of mystical insights from/into a spiritual dimension; they come to me during my meditations and I write them down. However, all individual human attempts to express or channel any kinds of truth through language are necessarily limited, personal and fallible. Anyone who opens themselves to them receives them.

 

My daily spiritual practice strengthens my faith and has invaluable applications to my own daily life, and I do trust that sharing my results is sometimes useful to some others. But of course, please be assured that I come and go as humbly and fallibly as others do and as I have always done, continually forgetting, ignoring and not applying higher truths I have learned and intuitively understand. But sometimes I remember to apply them, and when I do, they work beautifully.

 

I hope you will feel free to substitute (for the term, “God,” in the following meditations) any personal word that best describes or names the Source of your own experience of spiritual power, insight and understanding—whether that source be “God,” guiding spirit, intuition, the unknowable,  Nature, conscience, a higher power, Hashem, inner-knowing, Christ, Science, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, natural understanding, YHWH or Yahweh, Shiva, the Over-Soul, the Goddess, the divine, the Name, the Universe, Krishna, friend, G-d, light, Allah, Lord, Jehovah, Abba, the Ineffable, the One, Adonai, Creator, the name of your preferred deity, the ground of your being, I-Am-That-I-Am, or any other word(s) or name(s) that work(s) for you. Please also forgive the English language’s lack of a comfortable gender-neutral pronoun for a God/Spirit that/who expresses it/him/herself/themselves variably.

 

I find spiritual truth to be ultimately ineffable and uniquely personal. Our various expressions and explanations of universal spiritual truth/s seem limited because we are mentally and linguistically limited, and ultimately, only human. Like many others, I feel inspired to compose and share my personal and unique understandings, while yet feeling that human understanding of spiritual truth cannot be ultimately, finally, universally expressed, understood, known or agreed upon.

 

In this sense, all of our searches for understanding about and communion with “God,” through the multitude of faiths, belief systems, spiritual practices and secular searches for truth, human interdependence, conscience and service, seem to me to be interchangeably valuable, all adding to and enriching our higher shared human cultural understanding of the spiritual dimension of life.

 

The many different personal, linguistic, cultural, religious, experiential and explanatory names we assign to our various but uniquely individual religious, spiritual, humanist and philosophical experiences and understandings cannot change the nature and essence of the perhaps ineffable source of that spiritual power. Yet regardless of the conflicting beliefs, perspectives and practices of a world of diverse worshippers, seekers and non-believers, whatever, whoever and however our higher Source may be will never change. In this sense, we all share the same God.

 

The central message of all the world’s great religions is faith, hope, and love (in all their highest understandings and expressions) whether in nature, people, human culture or in our highest experiences of a spiritual dimension. In an eternal and spiritual sense, all human cultures and every human life has infinite, eternal value, even when humans and human culture seem temporally to be struggling with incredible burdens, or conversely, are enjoying disproportionate and inequitable benefits, enlightenment, privileges and support. From either an eternal or a temporal perspective, however, loving, accepting, forgiving and appreciating one another seem to me to be what works best, both in the present moment, and over time.

 

I embrace the interfaith movement, which supports the search for authentic worship, community, spirituality, faith and service through unique and various familiar traditions, while encouraging better understanding, respect and support for the faiths—or secular humanism—of others.

           

It’s possible that I may someday attempt to publish this year’s worth of meditations. Thank you for your help, and for your feedback too.

 

 

Daily Spiritual Sharing:

 

6/29/10 – Whenever I’m afraid, I can ask God to help me see each situation, person or challenge as he sees it, give him all my fear, calmly await his sure guidance, and trust and allow him to handle every situation, knowing he won’t let my fear get in the way of love.

 

6/28/10 – We can ignore all impulses to judge, condemn, correct, see evil, or contribute to conflict, guilt or weakness, and instead align ourselves with the holy light that knows all of humankind, and all past and present reality, only as loving and forever innocent.

 

6/27/10 – When we ask to see God’s perspective on any challenge, situation or any relationship, we’ll always be reminded of our eternal oneness with all, and that there is nothing that God’s boundless, unconditional, eternal, perfect love cannot heal.

 

6/26/10 – When we turn over our conflicts, priorities and decisions to our higher power, who alone understands the needs of all and what matters most, we will be reminded to hear in every communication only one of two things: an offer of love, or a request for it.

 

6/25/10 – We are now and forever exactly as we were created to be, but we will see, enjoy and celebrate God’s one beloved, innocent, perfect, eternal creation more clearly when we ask him to free our spirits from limiting cultural blinders of guilt, sin and fear.

 

6/24/10 – Rather than try to fix ourselves and others, we can surrender to God’s guidance, inspiration and justice (love); let go of judgment, comparisons and guilt; accept, appreciate and forgive all; and see all as eternally unique, innocent, perfect.

 

6/23/10 – We have created the scary stuff “out there in the world” through our own fearful, judgmental personal and cultural projections and reactions. When we change our goal to love, and see with accepting, forgiving, appreciative eyes, our world will change.

 

6/22/10 – Shared cultural illusions of brief, fearful, competitive lives between birth and death limit us, while faith in the eternal, universal justice of unconditional love, abundance and forgiveness offers infinite patience yielding immediate miraculous results.

 

6/21/10 – With no fear of conflict or competition, we can release all our illusions of past, future and separation, and commit wholeheartedly to seeing and sharing only a present miraculous healing motivation of love with God’s one holy, eternally-beloved creation.

 

6/20/10 – It’s helpful to think, not in terms of “you” and “me” and “others,” but rather, of all as one creation, one self, joined even with God. Then we will remember the truth that we can give only to our self, attack only our self, forgive only our self, love only our Self.

 

6/19/10 – We can choose to treat everyone in our lives in the same loving, appreciative and forgiving way as we would wish to be welcomed by God. As we get better at warmly offering acceptance, we learn to let our own past go, too, and to live now, free of guilt.

 

6/18/10 – We are eternal spirits who relate best to God by sharing our love, acceptance, forgiveness and appreciation with one another now. We can change the past and the future only by being willing to see everything differently in the holy present moment.

 

6/17/10 – Quiet, confident humility comes from willingness to allow greatness, power, ideas, energy, productivity, humor, creativity and love to flow through us from our higher source now, while both egotism and insecurity come from thinking we’re on our own.

 

6/16/10 – We save ourselves much pain, confusion and misery when we refuse to be distracted from the truth that we are all the eternal and beloved children of God, forever innocent, healed, forgiven, safe, and free to live openly, joyously and peacefully now.

 

6/15/10 – No matter what happens, no matter how weary, angry, guilty, sad, frustrated, frightened, discouraged, weak or down we feel, we can always faithfully ask for and await God’s certain peace, understanding, love, strength, inspiration and hope.

 

6/14/10 – We are not our bodies, nor are we our past guilts or future fears. Our bodies are merely communication tools, to be used, if we choose, to together receive and express God’s guidance, inspiration, wisdom, strength, creativity, love, healing and peace, now.

 

6/13/10 – When we’re fearful, defensive, angry and judgmental, seeing only attack and injustice, we can accept God’s guidance and strength instead of pain and suffering, and remember our reality and our purpose of peace, healing, forgiveness, truth, holiness.

 

6/12/10 – When we choose spiritual vision over judgment, we can see ourselves and others only as innocence, holiness, love and light, accepting all humankind as equal hosts to God’s eternal spirit, and using that shared power to heal all separation and division.

 

6/11/10 – All healing comes through us, not from us. When we ask humbly, willingly and openly for the love of God to work unimpeded through us as one with him and all of creation, we will help. When we rely upon our own wisdom and strength, we won’t help.

 

6/10/10 – Every moment that we devote to peace, love, acceptance, appreciation and forgiveness adds creatively, exponentially and eternally to the sum of love. Nothing else but love matters, nothing else lasts, nothing else is real in any eternal or spiritual sense.

 

6/9/10 – What we see “outside” us is actually a judgment either by our guiding spirit or by our ego. Our ego sees everything and everyone in terms of separation, fear, guilt, division and mortality, while spirit’s vision is wholeness, love, innocence, immortality.

 

6/8/10 – There are only two (incompatible) states of mind—a state of grace or a state of fear. Spirit sees and extends only love and peace eternally, while ego knows only mortal separation, guilt and fear. Choosing the right guide for vision makes all the difference.

 

6/7/10 – When we attempt to analyze reality by ourselves alone, we project guilt and fear on everything. When we ask our guiding spirit for truth, we remember that the eternal, spiritual reality of nature, ourselves, others and God is always and only love.

 

6/6/10 – We can make no decisions, large or small, whose effects do not ripple out to a multitude whose needs and lives—including our own—we can neither know nor understand. God does. We can safely, wisely, lovingly entrust every choice to him.

 

6/5/10 – All situations shift towards peace, acceptance, forgiveness and appreciation when we open ourselves to simple willingness to see them differently. God’s love and wholeness (holiness) are his sure and safe answers to our requests for his higher vision.

 

6/4/10 – We are peaceful and powerful beyond measure when we willingly entrust our egos, bodies, agendas and perspectives to God, allowing each holy instant to be exactly what it is, and knowing it as the miraculous, perfect spiritual reality that it is to him.

 

6/3/10 – We can ask God to help us stay in the present, free to see only the changeless holy eternal truth in ourselves, others and all of God’s creation, free of judgment, sin, guilt, fear, and retribution for the past, free to accept and forgive and love and appreciate.

 

6/2/10 – Our deadline-filled days are those we most need to turn over to our inner guide, who knows our highest priorities, releases our fears, calms us into purposeful, loving productivity, and turns each moment into a miracle of peace, joy and appreciation.

 

6/1/10 – We can enjoy all of nature (including humankind) non-judgmentally, as-is, while working lightly and lovingly to make the world a happier, better place. Changes of minds and hearts spring not from fear, but from appreciation, forgiveness, acceptance and love.

 

5/31/10 – War profiteers on all sides of war use demonization propaganda to dehumanize “the enemy” and divide us. Our guiding spirit’s holiness, power and comfort will allow us to see only the sanity, truth and shared loving purpose in all of humankind.

 

5/30/10 – Hell is the sense that we are guilty mortals competing for miserly spiritual and natural portions. Heaven is the sense that we are innocent, eternal spirits, foreverblessed with oneness, and with infinite and unconditional spiritual and natural abundance.

 

5/29/10 – When we focus on mistakes and shortcomings, not only will we miss seeing the good in others, we’ll miss it in ourselves. To teach and learn, we can ask our guiding spirit to help us see each situation, person, issue—and even ourselves—the way he does.

 

5/28/10 – If we’ll look calmly at our fears, we’ll see hidden beneath them, the truth about God’s one perfect, beloved, loving, innocent, eternal spiritual creation, and about all of humankind as now and always fully deserving only of love, honor and appreciation.

 

5/27/10 – Guilt offers only pain. We can understand and heal when we’re willing to see, through loving, non-judgmental eyes, all our relationships with/in God’s one whole innocent perfect creation as facets and expressions of our eternal relationship with him.

 

5/26/10 – God is within us, and we are within God. We are unique, eternal spirits, one with all of creation and with God. Love is our purpose, our meaning, our joy, the glue that binds us to one another and to God our home, whose holy temple is our relationship.

 

5/25/10 – When we’ve learned not to judge anyone else, for anything, but instead to love, accept, forgive and appreciate everyone as-is, we will find ourselves finally free of guilt and fear, and as joyous and light and one with all as we were lovingly created to be.