The Mary Christopher Podcast

Last weekend I had been talking to several people about Monarch Butterflies and the importance of starting “pollinator gardens” from seed during January.  If we start those gardens from seed this month, we will have seedlings to plant outside in the spring for all Pollinators!  Two or three days later, I was walking back to my truck from the grocery store with a cart.  I looked up and saw a large Monarch Butterfly to my right, fluttering through the air.  This Beautiful Butterfly landed on the handle of the grocery cart.  It sat right there, slowly moving its wings, and then flew away.  Again, I was in a “state of awe”.  I had not seen another Monarch for at least several months.

We are so blessed in so many ways, surrounded by Beauty and Light and the Energy of Life.  All too often, we miss opportunities to experience Creation.  However, if we give ourselves time to be in Nature, or care for Creation, we are nurturing our Hearts and our Soul.  We are “touching” Creation.  Living on Earth is a very Rare and Wonderful Opportunity for healing and spiritual growth.

Have a Wonderful Week wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  I am looking forward to seeing you outside,  and being with you in Creation.   

Mary Christopher teaches mindfulness, 

breathing practices, and building personal resilience.  

Gardening and Being in Nature are among her favorite activities. 

This is our Sunday, January, 12, Inner Peace Guided Meditation.  As you may know, I am in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we have been snowed in!  However, yesterday afternoon the Sun came out, the snow started melting and families showed up at the park!  It is cold today, but warm enough for a walk.

So, I am in the park, soaking up Sunshine and breathing fresh air.  As usual, Creation is working just fine!  Unfortunately, Human Beings seem to be having difficulty getting along.  Lessons we might have learned in kindergarten, didn’t seem to soak in.

Last week I watched the funeral at the National Cathedral for Jimmy Carter.  As I listened to the eulogies, again I was so impressed by all the good that Jimmy and Rosalynn were able to accomplish in their lifetime. They literally walked their beliefs into the world not only in the United States, but all around the world.  This is not easy to do.  Most of us are aware of how challenging it often is to bring Light and Healing into the world.  So, I felt deep gratitude for the patterns of compassion and charity they were able to bring into the world. 

Unfortunately, all those accomplishments do not seem to be nearly as exciting in the news for many people.  Now that the “media” serves up hour after hour of disasters, murders, and near disasters, we are often “bored” with goodness.  Because our brains are wired to be on the alert for “danger”, our attention is easily drawn to danger and drama!

Of course, there are times when there really is “danger”, but that is usually when the Weather Channel is showing the radar of approaching hurricanes, tornadoes, or snow storms.

If you have been watching any of the news on television, on your laptop or phone, you may have noticed how the news clips are structured to trigger fear or anxiety.  I don’t watch much television anymore, mainly because of the ads selling illnesses.  Now that I have noticed how the news clips are structured, I am avoiding that as well.  One ad or news clip that I saw recently, was very short.  It showed a photo of several young people of different races in a protest march.  I couldn’t see anything about the focus of their protest because there was large signage on the lower part of the clip with Big Letters that said, “Socialism”!  I didn’t keep watching because I was aware that the point of this clip was “to trigger” fear or anxiety.  However, I was impressed at how well done this ad or “news clip” was.  It was short and if I had not been paying attention, that image with the word “Socialism” might have slipped right by my conscious mind and into my subconscious.

I was aware, not for the first time, that we are being influenced to be afraid of, or worried about “other people” who may or may not look like us.  And, these ads or “news clips” are often exceptionally well done.

Because we as Human Beings are wired to look out for danger, anything that looks or sounds dangerous or threatening can grab our attention quickly.  If we are not aware that our attention has been grabbed, we may shift from feeling safe to feeling threatened.  Sometimes, this can happen very quickly.  This shift happens because of the way we are wired and because the amygdala may be triggered.  The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped part of the brain.  It plays a key role in processing emotions, especially fear, anxiety, and rage.

The amygdala is part of the limbic system, which controls emotions, behavior, and memory. It helps identify potential threats and can quickly trigger the body's "fight or flight" response.  So, if we are not paying attention, or if “the news” is running in the background without our full attention, we can find ourselves feeling anxious or even fearful.  Then we are moving into survival mode.  Our cortisol levels go up along with our heart rate.  If we are not entirely present and aware of the information and images that we are absorbing, we can be “triggered”.

Here is the Good News, courtesy of Google AI …

“Early scientific studies involving Buddhist monks and the amygdala primarily focused on observing how experienced meditators showed significantly reduced activation in the amygdala when exposed to emotional stimuli.  When the research compared non-meditating individuals to Buddhist monks, it showed a potential ability to regulate emotional responses through long-term meditation practice.”  

“This research often used brain imaging techniques like fMRI to measure brain activity during meditation sessions.  In one of  the very early studies, the monks involved had all been meditating on compassion or loving-kindness for at least 25 years.”

So, we are in good company and just need to keep up our spiritual practices, such as our Sunday Inner Peace Meditations !!!  Most of us have been meditating, at least since the 1970s.  This means we have been building “spiritual muscle”, and we tend to be more aware of the “mass mind” information we are absorbing!  Good for us !!!

Thank You all for showing up.  Thank You for keeping up your spiritual practices because it does pay off.  And, thank you for all the good you are doing in the world every day !!! 

Mary Christopher

As you are probably aware, we are having Weather!  In the U.S. from the Great Lakes region going south and east, we have plunging temperatures, freezing rain, snow, sleet, and very difficult conditions for travel.

During this week of Weather, please keep all the First Responders, including Firefighters, EMTs, Paramedics, Police, Highway Patrol, City and County Linemen, and anyone else you think of in your prayers.  All these women and men, including all the people staffing hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers are going the extra mile and may be putting their lives on the line.  Please keep all these courageous people in your prayers

Also, remember those folks who are homeless and in need of adequate shelter.  If there is a homeless shelter in the area where you live, consider giving them a call to find out if they need extra supplies.  Weather events can stretch their resources very thin.

This week we are remembering Jimmy Carter who passed away on December 29, 2024.  With all their years of service, Jimmy and Roselynn set an amazing example of compassion and integrity.  They had integrity and set the bar very high for compassion and service.  Please keep all the Carters' family and friends in your prayers.

Again, thank you for all you do every day.

Take good care of yourself and stay warm !!!

As I am sure you have noticed, we are facing a year of uncertainty and potential difficulties.  We all know people who are celebrating and people who are very concerned.  The road ahead looks potentially very bumpy.

Since early this morning, I have been thinking about Jimmy Carter, our 39th president who passed away Sunday, December 29.  He was president from 1977 to 1981.  In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to resolve global conflicts and create peaceful solutions, primarily in the Middle East.  In 2000 he left the Southern Baptist Convention because of their rigid interpretation of the gospel, especially related to the rights of women.  But Jimmy and his family continued their relationship with the First Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.  I am sure his decision to withdraw from the Southern Baptist Conference was a matter of conscience for him, and not an easy decision.

Jimmy and Rosalynn lived their convictions.  They were what I would call "New Testament" Christians who lived their beliefs with their work in the world.  Their efforts and outreach while in the White House and during the years following spoke volumes about their commitment to Jesus's teachings.  They simply were a blessing to the World without a lot of fanfare and noise!

We know we are facing challenges this coming year.  We also know that so many of our social systems are not working well.  But when we become reactive, and begin to blame "others" for these problems, we are coming from a place of fear and moving away from our hearts.  When we begin to live from a place of fear, we are in survival mode.  That is not a good place to be!  And our Hearts begin to shrink!  Not a good situation ...

So, what do we do?  This is when our spiritual practice, our well-developed spiritual muscle known as mindfulness, becomes very useful.  If we can catch those moments when we are moving away from our hearts and into survival, then we can shift direction.  We can "choose" to stay centered, focused, and balanced.  This is one of the great benefits of "practicing mindfulness"!  Mindfulness enables us to choose our path, to stay aligned with our hearts and our convictions.  Then it is much easier for us to be present and focused.  When we are "present" and aligned with our Heart, we are a blessing to ourselves, and our families, including everyone within as much as 10 feet or more all around us!

As we move into this New Year, remember the thousands of people all around the World who are meditating, doing their spiritual practices and exercises every day.  We are a "murmuration of Souls" who are doing the work that Old Souls do to heal the wounds of humanity and restore equilibrium.  We have shown up right now with the capacity to be an Awesome Blessing in the World!

Also, do remember that Creation is working just fine!  The Sun is coming up every day.  Trees and grasses and plants are growing.  Squirrels are gathering nuts.  Birds are flying, no problem.  I was doing errands this morning, and as I parked at one of the stores, I saw a small hawk flashing through the parking lot about 20 feet away from me.  I had looked up at just the right moment to see this amazing bird, so close, soaring by, its wings out-stretched.  Absolutely took my breath away!

The Good News is that we are part of Creation.  We are living, and moving, and breathing from within this Amazing Creation that is way beyond our comprehension!  But, in our Hearts, we Know we are held deeply within Creation.  Please remember this ...

Winter is the perfect time for being quiet, for resting within, and for restoring our sanity.  Let's give ourselves the "Gift of Quiet", a time to heal and a time to bless.

Have a Wonderful New Year.

Thank you for all you are doing!

And, remember to Breathe ...

We know that Creation is Conscious.  We know this because we now have the technology that "shows us" our relationships and connections with plants and animals, even insects.  We can demonstrate the ability of Slime Mold to find its way through a maze to food!  Really … !!!  We know that plants respond to “loving-kindness”.  We know that herbs are healing.

We all know people who have amazing relationships with plants and animals.  I have been very fortunate to have known several amazing veterinarians who care for and heal all Creatures Great and Small.  We know people who are healed by “their pets” or others who are restored to sanity by gardening.  We also know that some people can "grow anything"!  They seem to have a "green thumb"!

We know people of all ages who have amazingly conscious relationships with bees, birds, camels, cattle, goats, horses, dogs and cats, chickens, and even snakes.  We know farmers who grow bountiful crops of corn, oats, wheat,  vegetables, herbs, flowers, apples, or oranges almost every year ... !!!

We don't actually need science and technology to tell us that Creation is Conscious.  We know this in our Heart and in the deepest and most ancient awareness of our Souls.

That is why we care about Creation.  This is the reason humans are so nurtured and healed by the Forests, by one Spectacular Sunset after another, by the sound of gentle rain on the roof.  We laugh at Squirrels and marvel as Hawks soar through the air.  Fields of ripening wheat are breath-taking as the wind makes wave after wave.  People sit by the Ocean for hours, calmed and restored by the sound and rhythm of the waves.

We are part of Creation.  We tend to forget this in our "high-tech" modern world.  And, we tend to forget that we need Nature much, much more than Nature needs us.  As long as we are on this delightful and amazing planet, we need Mother Nature.  As soon as more of us understand that, our lives will be much simpler and healthier as well as happier.

One of my very early spiritual teachers told me several times, "If you want to understand the Creator, study Creation."  I took his excellent advice and I am so glad that I did!

Happy New Year !!!  May you find Peace and Happiness being a conscious part of Creation !!!

We are the Caretakers of this Earth.  Right now, we are the ones who are making a difference for the next generations.  This is like the game of tag.  Those of us living on the Earth right now are the ones creating the kind of world that our children and grandchildren and their children will inherit!  This is our moment to make a difference!

As you may know, I grew up in southwest Oklahoma.  We farmed and raised cattle, horses, and a few chickens.  Keeping the four-legged carnivores out of the chicken coop was always a challenge!  But we did manage to have fresh eggs during the laying season.  I learned so much from being around cattle and horses, farmers and ranchers, and veterinarians!  

Much of what I learned could not be absorbed from a book.  That learning came from experience.  For instance, cattle don’t like to be rushed.  Horses don’t like to be yelled at.  Farmers and Ranchers don’t always talk a lot, but when they do, it is worth listening to.  You can’t hurry any seeds to sprout once they are in the ground.  Wheat seeds, oat seeds, and alfalfa seeds each have a specific schedule.  An entire crop of alfalfa seeds can blow away overnight if the soil is too dry and the wind too strong!  I also learned that Patience usually gets better results than impatience.  Treating Everyone, including Animals, with courtesy and respect is a very good way to move through the world.

I learned how important it was to pay attention to the weather, and always carry extra flashlight batteries in the truck as well as extra water, especially in the summer.  I also learned not to get too close to a “dead” rattlesnake on a farm road, until you are sure it is DEAD!  I still have not heard the last of that one!

So much of what I learned growing up comes under the heading of wisdom and practicality.  We were careful not to waste water on the farm.  That water came from a well that could run dry during a Drought!  My grandparents were able to “hang onto” their land during the Dust Bowl, but not everyone was so fortunate.  Many people lost everything they owned.  They were forced to move away and usually never came back!  Trying to farm on the Great American Prairie is not a very good idea.  Crops and fields can blow away.

We are the current Caretakers of this amazing Earth.  Unfortunately, there seem to be fewer and fewer family farms.  Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream kept Vermont family dairy farms going for many years, but they were finally bought out.  We can’t all farm, have orchards, or raise bees.  But, we can support the people who are growing food or raising bees or fruits and vegetables.  They are still showing up in Farmer’s Markets and along roadsides.  

And, we can support the organizations who are preserving and expanding forests.  Every generation is going to need clean air and clean water to survive.  That is a legacy we can do something about right now.

Every tree that is planted and protected, every Old Growth forest that survives intact is our direct contribution to the Future.  We are contributing to the health and well-being of the generations that follow us.  We are “believing” in the future of Life on Earth.  Many of us live in neighborhoods where there is no guarantee that Trees will be left undisturbed for many years.  But, there are places where Trees and natural habitat can be sustained and protected.

Right now we are the Guardians and the Protectors of Creation on this beautiful little planet.  We are making a difference!  And, we can have an even greater impact by “giving Trees as a Gift” for holidays, birthdays, graduations, even as a memorial. 

Remember, every Tree counts and every gift makes a difference!

For nearly 125 years the Sempervirens Fund has protected these precious old growth forests by purchasing priority forests for permanent protection.  They have implemented extensive restoration techniques.  They manage thousands of acres of forest for resilience against climate change and wildfire, establishing a growing network of healthy, resilient redwood forests.  They are assisting a new generation of old-growth redwoods to emerge.  These amazing trees provide a critical natural infrastructure that captures carbon, filters air and water, and supports diverse wildlife.

We know redwoods are more than just local landmarks; they are global climate protectors. They are also home to countless species. Owls nest in their towering canopies, amphibians find shelter in their shade, and mammals of all shapes and sizes rely on them for survival. By protecting these forests, we preserve the rich biodiversity that makes these ecosystems so unique.  We can secure a healthy, thriving environment for future generations.

You can make a definite impact right now by supporting the ongoing work of the Sempervirens Fund.  Your contribution funds the year-round work of sustaining these precious redwood forests.  Sempervirens Fund is California’s first land trust, founded in 1900 and dedicated exclusively to defending the redwood forests and all creatures great and small that live in the Santa Cruz mountains.  

These donations make very special birthday and holiday gifts for any family or friends who care about the Redwoods and our environment.  All contributions are tax-deductible as allowable by law under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3).  

Click here to make a secure donation!

This is our Winter Solstice guided meditation and podcast for our weekly Inner Peace meditation. It is a beautiful day here.  It is cold and the Sun is shining.  I'm at a very lovely park in Tulsa.  There are parents out with their younger children. It is so good to see young children outside on scooters and swings and climbing all over the equipment rather than sitting in front of a screen!  This is a well cared for and safe park.  

We are now officially in winter in the Northern Hemisphere which means it is now summer in the Southern Hemisphere.  On the day of the Winter Solstice, the Sun appears to stop on its journey south through the sky.  Then it gradually begins its journey north over the next several days.  The winter solstice occurs at an exact time which is the time the sun appears to pause over the Tropic of Cancer.  Then each day following the Solstice, the sun will appear to be a little bit higher in the sky until the Spring Equinox.  Then we will begin our journey towards summer on the Equinox.

It is a beautiful day.  The sky is clear.  There's a breeze which is a bit cold, but not too cold for a walk.  And, I was up this morning in time to catch a photo of the Sun coming up over the house across the street.  That was great.

Unfortunately, in the midst of these holidays, we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a political tangle.  That could be my understatement for the year!  I have noticed that humans tend to do this.  We tend to get into serious and very challenging messes like this when there is a problem with refugees or overpopulation anywhere on the planet.  The situation is made even worse when refugees are fleeing in large numbers from one country to another.  This has been a problem throughout our history, and we have not managed to solve it!

When we have refugees knocking at the door, and it doesn't seem to matter which country it is, we tend to get a little crazy.  Sooner or later we begin to feel threatened and then frightened and anxious.  When we feel this threatened, we have a tendency to move into very unpleasant sorts of behavior.  In order for us to solve problems like overpopulation, or refugees, or systems that are way out of date, we need to get much better working together.  

Here is the Good News!  There are people in government and in communities who know how to do just that. They have learned how to get people talking to each other, listening to each other, working together for the common good.  If we can get better at communicating rather than polarizing, name calling, and threatening each other, we could make progress.  We know from experience that all those behaviors exacerbate the problem! 

So we're in a bit of a tangle.  And, it is a very unpleasant tangle!  It has become a very difficult political tangle, primarily because we haven't gotten much better at working with each other.  And, there are people who refuse to consider any other solutions but theirs!  Now we are in a situation where

people can get hurt.  All kinds of people, young and old and everything in between, can get hurt.  This is a tragedy in the making!

This is a tragedy in the making because it is what happens when people refuse to work together for whatever reason.  There are tragedies that didn't have to happen or that could have been avoided.  And there are tragedies that were made worse because of choices people made.

A good example would be the Titanic.  This ship was supposed to be unsinkable, so the owners and builders decided not to load the required number of lifeboats!  Why bother to put enough lifeboats on the Titanic for all the passengers since it was definitely “unsinkable”.  Then there were people, immigrants, refugee people, on the lower levels, all crammed in below.  In many ways they were considered “worthless”.  Approximately 1,317 passengers died when the Titanic sank.  709 of them were 3rd class passengers. Three-quarters of those passengers perished.  It was very difficult for them to reach the upper decks where the lifeboats were stored.  The sinking of the Titanic was tragic, and it was made even more so by the decisions and behavior of human beings.

I'm not saying that life would have been any better if it had been easier for them to reach the upper decks.  The Titanic went down regardless.  What is tragic is the arrogance of the people who built the Titanic, who did not put enough lifeboats on for everybody.  And, they probably overloaded the steerage!  We keep doing things like that.  I'm not sure whether we mean to or not.  We are creating tragedies because we are not working out solutions together.

I am not intending to lower your spirits for the holiday, but I am asking for some serious consideration for ways that we as human beings can move forward together.  

What can we do?  

How can we learn to listen to each other better? 

How can we get better at coming up with better ways to solve problems.  Many people go to church, go to synagogue.  People go to spiritual retreats. People do all kinds of activities in an effort to become more spiritual.  I understand that because I've done that myself.  And, I've been very fortunate.

The reason I feel so blessed is because the spiritual teachers I have studied and worked with were very practical and very grounded.  One of my very early teachers in his professional life had been an electrical engineer. He was very knowledgeable and practical.  And, he taught from that kind of understanding.  Another of my early teachers was Murshid Samuel Lewis, the Sufi teacher who brought in the dances of Universal Peace.  He was very practical.  He was a gardener.  He was an excellent gardener.  And the plants that he put in, many are still growing at his house in San Francisco.  One thing Murshid Sam said in one of the classes was when anyone showed up at his door for whatever reason, he would bring them in, wash their feet, and feed them.  He would welcome them, and then he would try to find the best way to help them.  All of my teachers had that kind of heart.

In the Benedictine tradition, welcoming a stranger is a major pillar of that teaching and of spiritual practice.  Hospitality is a core value of the Benedictine spiritual practice.

What we have right now, what all of humanity has right now, is a big challenge to grow up a little bit, to become a little more spiritually practical. Our challenge is to close the separation between what we say and do in church, what we absorb and learn on retreat, and turn that into better listening and better systems of dealing with problems.  This is not easy for humans, especially when we feel threatened!  We can do this. We've done it before and we can do it again!

There's a place, a small town in Texas called Fredericksburg.  It is near a sacred mountain, a granite outcropping, sacred to the native people who live there.  The German immigrants arrived in 1836.  There were probably some Spanish people there already.  The German settlers were very ethical. They talked to the native people and made friends.  And, they made a treaty.  Those settlers and the generations that followed, kept the treaty.  It is one of the few treaties in the US that was kept!

Good for them.  That is an example of human being growing up, being mature!  Keeping our word!  That was a big deal in my family, keeping your word, taking care of your neighbor.  Nobody in my family was a preacher, nobody. I come from a long line of attorneys, farmers and ranchers, and school teachers.  So, I know that keeping our word can sometimes be challenging!

Being on this planet right now is a huge challenge! It is also a gift.  This is an Opportunity to Grow!  Earth is an amazing place.  Creation is amazing, every day, it is amazing.  Maybe if we paid a little more attention to Creation and how well it is working all the time, we might calm down a bit and do a better job!  Creation is amazing!  When I saw the Sun coming up over the rooftop this morning, it was just stunning!  The sky was clear. The air was crisp.  The world was gorgeous.

That is another reason I'm so glad to see children and parents outside!  Some of the parents were wrapped up, like me!  Children were taking off their jackets and tearing around.  It is a good day to be alive.  It is a good day to be on Earth!  Yes, it is challenging!  It is difficult, and we're up to it.  We have to be up for it because it is right in front of us!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday.  Hanukkah and Christmas are the same day this year.  Kwanzaa starts immediately after on the 26th.  We are incredibly Blessed and sometimes we forget.

I am deeply grateful to you, to everyone who listens to this podcast and reads my notes, and gets my emails, and makes lovely comments on Facebook!  Thank you.  Thank you for being here. Thank you for all you are doing every day to make our World better for Everyone.  

So, take good care of yourself.  Have a wonderful holiday.  And, let’s do a little better tomorrow.  Let's be a little more creative with all these challenges!  

And, remember to breathe.  Mary Christopher

Today our redwood forests are at risk. Only 5% of the original old-growth coast redwood forests remain today.  These national treasures are in danger !!!  We know there are people who do not understand their value.  This leaves what remains of these iconic treasures, and the wildlife that depend on them, in grave danger.  However, there is hope and there is a plan, but we need your help to make it work.

These towering old-growth redwoods, some over 300 feet high and more than 20 feet wide, are nature’s giants!  They are unique to the Santa Cruz mountains and the California coast while their impact stretches far beyond.  Redwoods are nature’s champions in the fight against climate change because they absorb and transform a higher percentage of Carbon Dioxide than any other kind of tree!  By protecting these forests, we are preserving a thriving local ecosystem, as well as contributing to a healthier global climate! 

Redwoods are fire-resistant which is a great advantage for any kind of tree growing in Northern California!  In one effort by another group to establish a new forest, Eucalyptus trees were imported to California from outside the country.  Eucalyptus is not fire-resistant!  As soon as there was a drought, there was a wildland fire, and the Eucalyptus bark caught on fire.  Most of this planting burned to the ground because the bark is highly flammable!  Fortunately, the Sempervirens Fund is very knowledgeable and experienced. They have a long history of caring for these national treasures.

Right now, they have a rare opportunity to re-establish an interconnected redwood forest.  Once protected and restored, these ancient trees will continue to provide critical habitat for plants and wildlife, and continue to clean Carbon Dioxide out of the air.  They will continue to provide a robust natural defense against climate change.

For nearly 125 years the Sempervirens Fund has protected these precious forests by purchasing priority forests for permanent protection.  They have implemented extensive restoration techniques.  They manage thousands of acres of forest for resilience against climate change and wildfire, establishing a growing network of healthy, resilient redwood forests.  They are assisting a new generation of old-growth redwoods to emerge.  These amazing trees provide a critical natural infrastructure that captures carbon, filters air and water, and supports diverse wildlife.

We know redwoods are more than just local landmarks; they are global climate protectors. They are also home to countless species. Owls nest in their towering canopies, amphibians find shelter in their shade, and mammals of all shapes and sizes rely on them for survival. By protecting these forests, we preserve the rich biodiversity that makes these ecosystems so unique.  We can secure a healthy, thriving environment for future generations.

You can make a definite impact right now by supporting the ongoing work of the Sempervirens Fund.  Your contribution funds the year-round work of sustaining these precious redwood forests.  Sempervirens Fund is California’s first land trust, founded in 1900 and dedicated exclusively to defending the redwood forests and all creatures great and small that live in the Santa Cruz mountains.  

The Perfect Gift ... these donations make a very special birthday and holiday gift for any family or friends who care about the Redwoods and our environment.  All contributions are tax-deductible as allowable by law under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3).  

Click here to make a secure donation!

This is our inner peace, guided meditation for Sunday, December 15.  I am sitting in the Keystone Ancient Forest which is about 25 minutes outside Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The Keystone is approximately 1300 acres of undisturbed old growth forest.  It has not been developed or had any settlements or roads running through it.

I have stepped out of civilization and back into Creation.  It is so peaceful.  I hiked up here on the Fire Trail and I am about as close to the top of the ridge as I could get.  I sat down with this lovely evergreen, got comfortable, and immediately went to sleep.  I was sitting in Sunshine.  It was about 57 degrees and a little breezy, but I was wearing several layers so I was comfortable.  I woke up after about 30 minutes and looked around.  There were no lions or tigers or bears, so I closed my eyes and slept for about another 30 minutes.

The Sunshine was wonderful.  The colors of the leaves were amazing.  And, it was so peaceful.  Sitting here with this lovely tree, it was not hard at all to align with my Inner Peace.  What a Blessing !!!

Today I wanted to talk about something I've been meditating on for 10 days more or less.  About two weeks ago, I saw this statement somewhere online that said “Healing the Future”, and it got my attention!  We understand that Human Beings are Creators.  Whether we mean to or not, we do create our future.  Sometimes we do a better job than others, and sometimes we get all goofy and go into a major destruction mode!  We get really frustrated and decide the thing to do is just tear it all down and start over again!  Which, generally speaking, is usually not very helpful. 

When I was growing up, I would occasionally hear someone on the farm say, in a moment of extreme frustration, “Give me a big enough hammer and I can fix anything!”.  Well, we know that some things can be fixed beyond repair!  I've never found that giving someone a big enough hammer is the best of all possible solutions.  Usually, this means we are not being very creative or cooperative or even listening to each other.  We all know when we work together, and listen to each other, and get creative, we accomplish amazing things!  We all know that.  Somehow we manage to figure out all kinds of amazing solutions.

Right now we have a lot of challenges in our country and the world.  But 90% of the time, these situations are not the result of people being mean or stupid. They are usually the result of very rapid cultural change!  Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, our social, industrial, and technological systems have been changing so rapidly that we have not had any time to adjust.  Now we are dealing with systems that have not kept up with these changes!  Many of the systems have not been updated or restructured and they are just not working well for many people.

I have a picture of my aunt, who lived to be 103.  She was born right around the turn of the century.  I treasure this early photograph, because it was taken where she went to school.  She went to school in a one room schoolhouse.  The younger children are seated closest to the camera.  This would have been a big box camera.  It's easy to see my aunt since she was one of the younger children.  As you go toward the back of the room all the other children are older.  There is only one teacher for a large roomful of children, maybe 20 to 30. 

There were not enough qualified teachers to go around on the western frontier.  But they did figure out a brilliant way to solve the problem.  The older students who could read and write and do math would help the younger ones.  They would sit down with them and go over the lesson.  Or help them do a little bit of math while the teacher was working with other children.  It was a great system!  It worked!  It was like mentoring.  So this neat little system evolved.  It was a very compassionate system, where the people that needed help got the extra attention that they needed. And it worked!  Many cultural and social challenges have solutions if we can be patient and compassionate.  Problem solved ... !!!  

A week or so ago, I saw this little phrase, which was “Healing the Future”.  So I started meditating on that.  After a few days, I had an intuitive sense that if we can heal our hearts, we can heal the future.  That means, if we can heal our hearts and heal some of this frustration and angst and despair and cynicism, then we can create a better future!  We have done it before. We are perfectly capable of healing our Hearts, but we have to believe in ourselves.

So today, I would like for us to work with a simple way to heal the hurts of our hearts, to start the process, just a little bit.  This is why I'm sitting in the wilderness, or as close to pure wilderness as I can get.  I am sitting with a lovely tree, surrounded by many other lovely trees with beautiful fall colors and evergreens.  It is just gorgeous.  I'm sitting on a soft bed of leaves.  The whole floor of the forest is covered with leaves.  As these leaves break down, all the nutrients will go back into the soil to feed the trees.  It is a perfect system, as long as we, that would be human beings, don't mess with it.

So I've stepped out of civilization, and I'm sitting in Creation.  I'm relaxing. I am gently aware of every breath, relaxing, feeling my body settling down.  What I have understood is that we are not able to think our way into a peaceful state.  We can't think our way out of despair, or anger, or frustration.  This is one of the things that is so difficult for people who are doing their best to learn how to meditate.  We can't think our way into a quiet state or even into a peaceful state.  It just does not work! 

But we can go to our heart.  We can rest with our Heart.  We don't have to make our Heart do anything.  We can just rest with our Heart and breathe through our Heart.  We can let our Heart relax and be with our breath.  Let our mind ramble on wherever it wants to ramble and not worry about it.  Just, very gently, bring our attention back to our breath and our Heart.

One of the great miracles about being a human being is that our bodies, like our whole system, is always trying to heal itself.  This is built in.  When we relax and breathe gently, we begin to shift gears.  When we look at the incredible beauty around us and breathe then we are aligning with Creation and becoming more coherent.

If we can shift out of looking for what's wrong and or what we think is not working, and focus on what is working, this begins to shift our perception of the world and of the people all around us. We start to see people as whole.  If not as our brothers and sisters, at least as our cousins 3X removed, right?

We are all on the planet right now, and it's difficult.  It is extremely challenging, and scary.  At this point, we need to remember that Human Beings are programmed to have a bias for negativity.  When we were evolving and our brain was developing, we were doing our best to survive while living on the Savannah.  So, wherever we were on the world, we were looking for things that might be a threat.  If we got really good at finding those threats and escaping them or getting rid of them, we stood a much better chance of living longer and producing offspring.  So, we have a negativity bias. We're looking for what's wrong in order to survive. 

But we're no longer living in the wilderness. We are no longer living in the savannah.  We're living where there's some civilization.  It might seem like a chaotic civilization, but it is still civilization.  There aren't lions and tigers and bears and snakes. We don't have the same kind of threats, but we still have this negativity bias!  So we need to be very conscious about what we pay attention to and where we put our awareness.  This doesn't mean that we become naive!  It means that we are aware of where we are and what is happening right now, in the present.  

We need to be aware of and looking for what's working and who is helping, not harming.  That is precisely what we need to know for survival.  We need to know what systems are working. We need to know what people are capable of working with other people to build a better civilization.

This is exactly where we need to put our energy!

And we need to be very patient and compassionate with ourselves.  Because if we are patient and compassionate with ourselves, we'll be so much better at being patient and compassionate with others.  Maybe we will even get better at listening to each other.  Wouldn’t that be Wonderful !!!

In our meditation, I would like for us to do a very simple practice.  I've been doing this particular little exercise for more than a week.  I've discovered that as I allow my heart to relax, my heart seems to take a deep breath and calm down.  When I do this, it is much easier for me to find that place of Inner Peace.  Amazing … so simple and it works !!!

You can listen to the podcast.  Or, try it yourself …

This is so simple.

Just sit down or lie down and breathe, gently …

Follow your breath,

as we breathe in,

following your breath, 

all the way down into your solar plexus,

feel yourself becoming more centered.

As you breathe out,

following your breath

from your solar plexus,

from the bottom of your lungs,

past your heart

and out into the space all around you,

allow yourself to relax,

Keep following your breath.

When you're feeling centered and relaxed,

at ease with yourself,

and comfortable with your breath, 

then bring your awareness to your heart.

Allow your whole body to sink into the chair 

or the floor or the sofa or the bed, 

just wherever you are.

Let your body rest.

As you breathe in, be aware of your heart.

And as you breathe out, allow your heart to relax,

to open up.

We're in a safe space.

Or, we're with good people.

Allow your heart to open,

to relax just a little bit,

feel the power in your heart,

the rhythm of your heart.

Let yourself come to Rest 

very gently with your Heart.

Feel the unconditional love,

the compassion, the blessing   

That compassion is always there,

Moving through our hearts,

always there,

Let yourself feel with every breath

the love and compassion,

the unconditional love that moves through All Creation.

Let your heart begin to heal from anything

that has ever caused any hurt.

Very gently, stay with your breath.

Stay with your heart

for as long as it's comfortable and

and when you find that inner peace and calm,

then remember it.

Walk that feeling into your week,

remembering the goodness that lives within you,

and the goodness that lives within other people.   

Mary Christopher