Some light on the state of fear

Fear is the danger--for example, when I was a little girl, my leg was healed of a nasty, painful boil. I had worn a wool stocking to hide the boil from my mother who was busy with our large family. When the removal of the stocking revealed a huge scar, she was surprised by what she saw, and scolded me because of the danger I supposedly had been in. The motherly concern took on in my own thoughts imaginative shapes, and I became fearful.

Even though the boil was visibly gone, the pain returned. But then I asked myself, "Why are you afraid? You are alright. Your leg is fine."

As I accepted this simple truth, the fear immediately vanished, and I felt at ease again.

In the Bible, the wisdom book of Job, sheds some light on the state of fear.  Job said, "...the thing I greatly feared is come unto me." (3:25).  Isn't he saying that the fear of a dreaded thing makes us suffer what we fear?

Spotting fear as a false thought with unreasonable emotions should alert us to fear's deceptiveness.

But it can be difficult to do.

Eva-Maria Hogrefe 

2018

Obonato" in their language means: "I exist because we exist."

The anthropologist invited the children from the African tribe to play one game.  He placed a basket of fruit near the tree and announced, addressing the children: "The one of you who reaches the tree first will be rewarded with all sweet fruits."  When he signaled to the children to start the race, they locked their hands tightly and ran together, and then they all sat together and enjoyed the delicious fruit.

  The astonished anthropologist asked the children why they all ran together, because each of them could enjoy the fruit for himself.  To which the children replied: "Obonato—Is it possible for one to be happy if everyone else is sad?” "Obonato" in their language means: "I exist because we exist."

Love this!!🥰

EMH, her photos

 

On Making Mistakes

On Making Mistakes

“ The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually to make a new man of himself.”

Wang Yang-Ming, Chinese philosopher and statesman of the 15th century

We had the experience...

“We had the experience, but missed the meaning. 

T.S. Eliot 

At a meeting of medical and surgical specialists years ago, the following remarks were made:

“Anyone who thinks because he or she is getting along in years they must have loss of vigor, debilities, or that degenerative disorders should be experienced, is suffering from a ‘time neurosis’ which may be more effective than physical conditions in producing the effects they fear.

Every human tissue is endowed with potential immortality when adequately provided with food factors, oxygen and suitable warmth, and when removal of waste is carefully affected.  Time has no effect on human tissues maintained under these condition, or indeed, under any conditions. Vigor does not necessarily vary with the age of the adult. Belief in the effect of time tends to reduce ambitions, and  therefore expectations and endeavors curtailed.

All those who develop a time-neurosis submit to the prevalent superstition that time is in  some way a poison excerpting a mysterious cumulative action. The obsession itself may be the cause of dying prematurely. Senility, they say, is a neurotic condition.”

“ Time is not Toxic” quoted from the NY Herald Tribune

Think truly and your thought will the world’s famine feed

“Think truly and your thought will the world’s famine feed.”

Horatio Bonar

The rudiments of logic

 The rudiments of logic, an unrivaled technique for separating ideas that make sense from those that don’t. And you learn how to recognize some notoriously egregious— and common errors of thoughts.  Achieving knowledge is the usual point of thinking. 

Einstein’s theory of relativity arose wholly from thought experiences conducted in his mind,  not from experimentation in a lab. This development paved the way for astonishing creativity  in physics.

Dr. James Hall

Goodness never fails!

Goodness is the only investment that never fails. 

Henry David Thoreau

„we can know God.”

"A truthful character is of value beyond computation.  It’s transparency is beautiful.
No darkening stains discolor the medium through which the soul goes forth in words,
in looks, in actions.  It is the only medium through which we can know God.”

Spirituality the summit

Humility
is the door

Honesty
is the way

Spirituality
is the summit...

One beautiful
and amazing
and freeing thought
at a time—

Constructive Idea

It's fear that complicates everything by inflaming the human senses. But keep in mind a kick against a shell cannot hurt the pearl. Wisdom's strength lies in the clear reading and recognition of what is essential and immediately supplies constructive ideas.

Eva-Maria

Humility

Ideas on humility—

„ To pass from impoverishment to poverty as one moves from humiliation to humility.“

„ Therefore hold to the things which are reliable.  Look to simplicity; embrace purity!“

„Humility is not a peculiar habit of self-effacement, rather like having an inaudible voice, it is a selfless respect for reality and one of the most difficult and central of all the virtues.“

„Humility must always doing its work like a bee making its honey in the hive: without humility all
will be lost.“

Eva-Maria

Our thoughts create the world we make for ourselves

Eva-Maria

Existence May Not Be Immediately Perceived

Existence may not immediately be perceived in its fullest nature, because it includes not only visible and tangible things.  It reaches further—the speculative qualities of existence, i.e. our dreams and also our fears.  We do not  perceive right away the great variations in life, which in general work to keep us fluid and flexible and help us avoid becoming one-sided, and therefore support a more gentle approach, one that is not only controlled by accepted facts or opinions.  They teach a reality that is much broader and, perhaps more encouraging.

While it may be difficult to grasp the inner nature of something, we can perceive the expression of it, and thereby read it through an engagement with the qualities discerned.  Any aspect of existence well-contemplated creates an enhanced faculty for insight.

Eva-Maria

Children

The Talmud records a saying to the effect that "the world is saved by the breath of the school children..."

Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, writes, "Our principle care of all is this--to educate our children well."

Say ye not, There are four months...

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

King James Version of the Bible John 4:35

Be a Miracle to Yourself —Sei ein Wunder zu dir selbst

Sei ein WUNDER zu dir selbst und geistige Dankbarkeit füllt dich vollkommen.  Und gesunde Gedanken und Gefühle  werden nicht nur zu dir ein großer Segen, aber auch für anderen die es spüren! So ist der innere Frieden erschaffen!

Be a miracle to yourself and gratitude shall fill you deeply, and thus thoughts and feelings will bless you with a sense of wellbeing!  So is an inner freedom established—blessing you and also providing a restful presence for others.

Lass die Liebe ein Geschenk für dich sein!

Let love be a gift to you!

Eva-Maria

Always a knit of identity…

„Always a knit of identity… always distinction … always a breed of life.“

Walt Whitman

Drawing by me from my children’s book

Joseph

Joseph, as we read in Genesis 37, was the youngest son of Jacob, and his father loved him above all his other children, this enflamed their hatred for him,  which grew more and more because he, just a teen, boasted about his dreams.  After being given by his father a coat of many colors, his brothers had enough and threw him into a deep pit.

He was found by some men who were on a journey and they sold him as a slave to a guard of the Pharaoh of Egypt.

In spite of this, Joseph grew up as a good and wise man… and conducted himself in all ways with great dignity though he was tempted on all sides.  He became a leader and influenced the Pharaoh‘s circle.  As such he made decisions with far-reaching consequences for his adopted country.  He ensured grain was plentiful and stored for the use of many, including his neighbors.

A famine was spreading in the lands.  Jacob asked his older sons to travel to Egypt  to buy food.  When Joseph recognized them, he tested them, but free of resentment he could clearly recognize his own purpose in life, that he had  risen to leadership in order to preserve life!

It is in the shelter of each other that we live!

Eva-Maria