EZosophy 101 - the Wisdom of Charlie Brown

It’s Christmas time, & Lucy comes in where Charlie Brown is standing & says, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. `Tis the season of peace on earth & good will toward men. Therefore, I suggest we forget all our differences & love one another."

Charlie Brown’s face lights up. "That’s wonderful, Lucy. I’m so glad you said that. But why do we only have to love each other at this time of year? Why can’t we love each other all year long?"

Lucy thinks for a minute… and then blurts out.  "What are you, Charlie Brown… some kind of a fanatic or something?"

So… Lucy gets it… at the only level she can.  Let’s take the good will and the tolerance of the Christmas spirit, and put it in this small framework that allows us to be accepting and open and loving to everyone from December 10th through December 25th.  Maybe she could even take it as far as New Years. But that’s Lucy’s limit.  In fact, if you really know Lucy’s personality… she would probably only make it through a few hours of peace and good will.  But we will give her the benefit of the doubt and say - two whole weeks in December.

Now this isn’t just Lucy.  We all know people who dust off their best behavior once a year and bring it out around Christmas  - people who are not usually all that generous show up at our door with a plate of Christmas cookies or a gift – and we have to catch ourselves so our jaws don’t drop open in amazement – much like Charlie Brown’s must have.  At that point we have a choice… to realize that this is the best they are able to do in the place they are in and to be grateful for their gesture – or to judge them as somehow being less than us because they can’t seem to be as consistently generous as we believe we are.  If we’re choosing to judge them in a negative way… are we really any more enlightened than they are?

Lucy is doing the best she can.  Charlie Brown has a better idea – but he probably won’t stand up for himself.  It’s not really in his nature.  So what can he do?

In New Thought teachings, if we hold a thought in consciousness, it helps create that thought in others.  So technically, if Charlie Brown continues to hold the Christmas Spirit – the love and good will toward all men – in his heart year around, he can help contribute to that consciousness even when Lucy pulls that football out from in front of him every time.  Not easy to keep your cool when you’re flat on your back with all the wind knocked out of you… but it can be done.  Like me breaking my toe, driving around with only one headlight and a rear view mirror that just dangles – and actually laughing out loud instead of working myself into a panic attack.  We can keep a consciousness of love and forgiveness all the time… if we practice until we get it right.  That’s the essence of EZosophists – whether they be the Christmas, Easter, Work, School, or Home variety.  It really is easier and much more pleasant to love than to panic… once you get in the habit.

Someone took I Corinthians 13 – the love chapter in the Bible – and paraphrased it like this:

"If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on the peace and love for all that Jesus came to demonstrate for us, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of LOVE will endure."

On this Christmas Eve, I welcome the presence of Love and all of her helpers.  Open our minds and hearts to receive the intense power of Love.  Give us the grace to fulfill our personal missions as Love’s servants, messengers, and ministers.  Help us to resist the many deaths of our courage and joy. Give us the sanity to choose love again and again… even when Lucy pulls that football away as always.  Deliver us from our fear and into the awareness of your safety.  Bring peace to our restless hearts and lift our spirits to the light.  Encourage us to create a joyful, anxiety-free, love-filled Holiday.

We, the EZosophists, do hereby promise to enjoy ourselves this Christmas.  We will resist the temptation to feel sorry for ourselves and to buy into the seasonal depression.  We realize that our thoughts are powerful and that our sanity, peace of mind, and the presence of love depend on our choices.  We therefore promise to turn our minds to thoughts of joy, innocence and forgiveness.  We forgive our families for any insensitivity we might percieve.  We forgive our friends for not living up to our scripts by calling or sending gifts.  We practice unconditional love with ourselves, the people in traffic, the people in line, our children, our neighbors and all those who believe differently than ourselves.  We promise to allow Christmas to be the “merry end of Sacrifice.”

 Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown – you are my inspiration!  And so it is.  Namaste!

The Power of "Mollyness"

On June 4^th, 2013, a bright source of light was transferred from the harsh reality of a transplant hospital in Omaha to a much kinder gentler existence with the Source of that light.  After an entire lifetime of major physical challenges and suffering, and at the ripe old age of 24 years, 6 months, and 18 days, my dear, creative, bright, beautiful, funny friend Molly Jo Eaker-Pearce stepped out of her wounded battered young body and into the perfect health and wholeness of eternity.

 

Molly probably wouldn't remember the first time we met, since she was only a baby.  She might not remember the second time either - but I certainly do.  It was in Flagstaff, at the Li'l Bit North Ranch - and a group of us had just finished a women's retreat with Molly's mom, Melisa.  I stayed an extra day - and that was when Melisa had the bright idea that she could go into town to run some errands, and that I - the very experienced 30-something mom of two with a BA in Education - would be quite capable of taking care of this tiny sprout of a 3 year old while she was gone for a couple of hours.   

Now, I knew something about Molly from the grapevine of mutual friends Melisa and I had - but I had not really spent much time with her.  I mostly knew that she had serious physical challenges - that she was frail and kind of sickly - and I had seen her dragging the pole on wheels that carried her feeding pump around behind her much of the day.  With more than a decade of being a mom, and my saddle bags overflowing with creative drama training and experience with special needs kids,  I had no reason to think this sweet blue-eyed angel would be any kind of a challenge.  But unfortunately, Molly decided she did not want Mom to go… and when Melisa had the audacity to go anyway - Molly's anger flared.  I tried the normal distraction things - games, stories, even Barney on the TV (oh, my… I was, in the near future, going to watch an unimaginable amount of Barney shows and play Barney games and spend more time desperately looking for her lost Barney that she absolutely had to have or the world would come to an end), but on this day, poor Barney was not getting Molly's attention.  I assured her (over loud wailing) that Mom would be right back - and she was only going to get a few things from the store - but it had no effect.  Her anger grew to rage - and then to complete outrage that Mom would dare to go off and leave her!  And then… I was privileged to witness my first, official, dyed-in-the-wool, Molly Jo Pearce temper tantrum.

I know it is perfectly age-appropriate for a 3 year old to throw a tantrum when they don't get their way.  It's just that I had no concept of the amount of power and fury contained in this petite, apparently frail body that had flung itself to the floor in front of me.  The wailing - the flailing arms and legs… what was I to do with this supposedly sickly child who was quickly turning into a Tasmanian She-Devil before my eyes?

I tried again to convince her that mom would be back soon, but the kicking and screaming continued.  I tried distracting her with funny voices - silly songs ….even using my official authoritative "Mom" voice to demand she calm down - but Molly was not to be dissuaded.  I was really afraid that something horrible was going to happen - that there might be serious injury,  Finally - after what seemed like an eternity, (but which was probably about 20 minutes), when nothing I said or did had made one bit of difference, I quit.  I just gave up and lay down on the floor next to her.  I placed my hand lightly on that trembling little back, and lay there, saying nothing.  At first she escalated in protest, but after a few minutes, the yells began to fade into whimpers - and I felt her muscles slowly begin to relax under my hand.  It would take quite a while before she stopped completely and yielded her spot on the floor, but the worst was over… for now.

I didn't know it at the time, but extreme tantrums and dissociation are one way that kids who have been through medical trauma process some of that emotional pain.  They can literally get so lost in the emotion they just check out and don’t even know what is going on around them anymore.  All I knew on that sunny summer day in the mountains of northern Arizona was that I would never again equate a frail body with a frail spirit, especially not in the case of one Molly Joe Pearce, determined 3 year old and Tasmanian She-Devil impersonator!

There is so much power in the way we present ourselves to the world every day.  Molly, with all her physical limitations - displayed more power to affect good in the lives of people around her than most of the  famous and supposedly powerful people I know.    So the easiest way I have of sharing one of the major lessons I learned from Molly is to quote Marianne Williamson:  “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Molly knew this about herself.  In her short lifetime she learned what many of us never find out - we are the powerful beyond measure.  

Thank you, Mollywog.  Your power is awesome… and it is with us still, along with your joy and your passion for life.  Enjoy your next journey my friend!

For most posts about Molly – please go to: 

http://undissolved.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-poem-below-was-written-by-my-dear.html

http://undissolved.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-molly-connection.html

Thank You, Marianne Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -  Marianne Williamson

This is probably one of my top 5 favorite quotes… maybe even the one I love most.  But the first time I read it - maybe 30 years ago when I was in my mid-thirties - it totally boggled my fundamentalist Christian mind.  I had been consistently taught that to even consider that I was "brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous" was a sin of arrogance and vanity - and any good Christian would never EVER actually say something like that OUT LOUD!  (The fires of hell were always lingering just around the corner back then.)  I think my eyes darted around a bit in search of stray lightning bolts - - - and that was just for reading the quote!

Back in those days, I was “blessed” with a great deal of trauma and drama.  I say “blessed” because although it was a horrific time for me, it forced me to reevaluate pretty much every nook and cranny of my life.  PTSD and other challenging experiences, coupled with honest confrontations from some amazing, loving, and wise friends, forced me to reconsider the spiritual beliefs of my youth. Eventually, life pried much of the fearful, judgmental, fundamentalist dogma out of my tightly clenched fingers, and I began to consider the world from an increasingly different perspective. 

35 years of fundamentalist brain-washing has not been easy to undo.  I still have negative knee-jerk reactions to some things I hear in New Thought and Ancient Wisdom teachings.  A Course in Miracles has too many Biblical “buzz words” from my past, and the idea that I totally create my own reality makes me shudder.  I don’t always feel brilliant or talented or fabulous, and (to be totally honest) I still occasionally glance around for lightning.  But my mind is about 500% more open than it was when I first read Marianne’s brilliant words so long ago.  I know, on the most basic level, that I was born to make manifest the glory of my Creator that is within me.  I am indeed brilliant and talented and maybe even fabulous!  (I still struggle with gorgeous, but I am working on it.)  It is okay for me to let my light shine, and self-deprecation is essentially blasphemy against the Source within me!  That one was powerful when it finally sunk in – on the hierarchy of sins, from bad to abhorrent, blasphemy against the Divine is way worse than arrogance or vanity! I now spend a lot of time working on my own liberation from the fear that can throw such a wrench into the workings of life.  And I hang out with people who are diligently seeking truth and peace and love, and who accept me unconditionally - for exactly who I am!

I’m looking for a strong finish for this blog, but I don’t think I can say anything more brilliant than this short and sweet quote by our friend Ms. Williamson:  

“Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.”

Thank you Marianne!