Basketball and Spirit

John Wooden, college basketball’s most successful coach, died yesterday at age 99. Wooden retired in 1975 and ultimately became viewed as a kind of sage for both basketball and life, a symbol of both excellence and simpler times.

I became aware of him when I joined CHARACTER COUNTS! while living in Santa Fe 10+ years ago. I was impressed with this public personality when I read: Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Here’s John Wooden's Seven Point Creed, a message given to him by his father upon his graduation from grammar school, which he carried around with him and lived by:
• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

[Compiled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden and The New York Times.]

Here is a person who was living his faith to the best of his ability, a wonderful role model especially for the young adults he coached. It seems to me that he was a spiritual person who impacted many, not just due to his sports knowledge and talent, but by being an emissary for God.

Here’s a few more quotes attributed to John Wooden, which impart (to me) his spirituality:

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.”

Dear Spirit-
Thank You for the people who point to You by the way they live their life.

Glowing

In my early years of 12 Step program work and cultivating my relationship with my Higher Power, people new to my life as well as old, would comment that there was something “different” about me. Yes, I had lost some weight, but that was not quite it. I was “glowing” many would say.

Most could not pinpoint the reason back of it, just as Bill initially couldn’t when Ebby visited him (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 9). Bill was amazed that his friend was sober, but there was something in addition to his sobriety. Ebby explains that he has found “religion” (in this case, aka “spirituality”) and a God of his understanding. And so it was with me.

In the years since, my glow has ebbed and flowed, ebbed and flowed. But last night in my class “Spiritual Evolution in Consciousness” someone told me I was “glowing” and another commented that I seemed uplifted. I didn’t have a chance to reply, but I know it was for the same reason as it was for Ebby and for me off and on over the years of my spiritual journey.

Spending more and more time with Spirit, especially in the realm of gathering with fellow journeyers, strengthens my inner divine spark. My heart opens, my character assets come to the foreground (and remain there longer), I am at peace and in love and joy. All because of my deepened relationship with the God of my understanding.

Putting God first in my life, puts the glow in me, and I shine from the inside out. I serve God as a power of example to others about what Higher Power can do for me that I never could do for myself. I am grateful.

A Special Lady

This afternoon I was blessed with being witness to the interaction between seven newborn pups about 10 hours old and their mom Kanaloa, a cocker spaniel, a recent addition to the family of some friends of ours.

Kanaloa is a bit young herself yet this was her third (and last) litter. She showed care and attention to her young ones very naturally, who just wanted to be close to their mom. Kanaloa is a sweetheart to start off with and stole my heart when I first met her. Seeing her take care of her pups made her even sweeter in my eyes.

If ever there was a role model for us humans, here is one. She started giving birth at 3:00 AM, without a whimper or cry, with ease, grace, and dignity. She tended to each pup as s/he emerged from their sac, and continued to clean them up and feed them. One was a stillborn, but Kanaloa didn’t linger in the past but moved forward to take care of those in the here and now. She’s a medium-sized dog and to see all those puppies around her it’s hard to imagine how she managed to be in such great spirits in the last several days of her pregnancy carrying all that weight.

And, now that she’s back to her former slender figure (not so quickly for female humans), she’s bouncing around, ears flopping, with a smile of such joy on her face.

Kanaloa is a cuddly bundle of love and joy, surely a gift from God. The father of her babies is a Labrador Retriever whose character is not known; therefore, we’re all hoping the pups have Kanaloa’s temperament. So Rog and I are thinking that we just might have two little bundles of love and joy come live with us in a couple of months. Then I’ll be blessed to be showered with God’s unconditional love on a daily basis not only through Rog, but channeled through these little pups as well.

Mind Versus Heart

“Don’t try to reach God with your understanding; that is impossible. Reach Him in love; that is possible.” – Carlo Carretto

When I was a devout atheist, I was trying to have the existence of God proven to me directly. But there wasn’t a way for my logical ability and understanding to show me that Spirit existed. Even studying the philosophy of religion in college and learning of the arguments for God’s existence made down through the ages only proved to me that God’s existence could not be proved in a scientific way.

When my mind let go of the notion for logical understanding of God and my heart opened up just a tiny bit (the size of a mustard seed) to a possible other way, I found the ‘proof’ I needed.

It wasn’t in the form of logic, understanding, or scientific evidence. It was from hearing about and witnessing the character rearrangements and what could only be deemed ‘miracles’ in those around me walking a spiritual path. My soul was touched and it could only be God behind all this. God had reached my fellow travelers through love, and God had reached me too.

With all my thinking, it was not possible for me to conceive of or reach God, but through my heart being flooded by Its love, it was a no-brainer.

It All Starts With Thought

Over the years, I’ve heard the Bible quote “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But I’ve also heard that the word “logos”, from which “word” comes from, can be translated to “thought”. Hence, we then get “In the beginning was the Thought, and the Thought was with God, and the Thought was God.” Thoughts are pretty powerful, I’d say.

A Chinese proverb states: "Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts inspire your words. Be careful of your words, for your words precede your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits build your character. Be careful of your character, for your character decides your destiny."

How true, how true.

Today’s reading contained In God’s Care reminds me that “Although it takes practice to remember to let our Higher Power direct our actions, it will become a habit in time – the healthiest habit we’ll ever develop.”

This is the primary habit for me to cultivate – once again. Sometimes I’m really present, checking in with Spirit, regularly asking for guidance and the willingness with the ability to carry it out. Sometimes, (like yesterday – see blog), I am so wrapped up in minutiae that the greater - and more important – issue of what is God’s Will is taken over by my ego.

If I am to develop healthy habits that ultimately affect my destiny, then there is no doubt I must think about and commune with Spirit. I must be in constant contact with my Higher Power, which this action in and of itself will help me to develop healthy thoughts, words, actions, habits, character, and finally, my destiny. It’s a loop.

How important is thought indeed.

A Sure Thing

Rog and I have this agreement that whoever prepares the meal, the other does the dishes. It works well and, at the same time, we’re both flexible so sometimes one of us will handle both tasks. Tonight Rog warmed up dinner and so I was going to clean dishes after a potty break.

I was looking forward to cleaning the dishes because I figured it’d give me time to contemplate today’s blog material. However, lo and behold, when I returned to the kitchen, the dishes were all washed, a surprise from my beloved husband! I sure appreciate his thoughtfulness and giving nature. Oh, but I was going to use that time to think about what to write in my blog and to get away from the negative energy I was feeling from being at a specific location we’d stopped at this afternoon...

Well, I know what to write about in my blog today, and it’s just the thing when I’m not feeling quite right or feel beset by dark forces: gratitude. And, at the top of my gratitude list – after God - is my husband, Rog. I am so grateful for his character, values, love, and companionship, for all the fun we have living this adventure called Life, and for being the best that a best friend can be.

I’ll continue my gratitude list to feel better, but also as a prayer and to advance my connection to Spirit, which I think I’m in need of...

I am grateful for:
- Friends with whom we can talk about the most woo-woo things and they’re right there with us!
- Wonderful physical health even if it is clear that this body is aging.
- The many blessings that have come our way in these last couple of months particularly
- An increasing faith that there is a Plan, that the Universe conspires (“with Spirit”) for my good.

The list could easily go on, each and every day, anew. It is a sure thing that when I’m in need of a ‘pick me up’ and to feel The Presence more deeply, making a gratitude list, whether mentally or in writing, fits the bill.

Well, it looks like I didn’t need to be the dishwasher tonight after all to figure out what to blog and, I got to experience Rog’s kindness once again. I’m so grateful!

A Change in Soul

According to Emmet Fox, prayer is “...our only means of returning to our communion with God” and “... is the only thing that change’s one character. A change in character, or a change in soul, is a real change.“ (The Sermon on the Mount – The Key to Success in Life, page 41)

This reminds me of the story set forth in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, in which an alcoholic American businessman was told by Dr. Carl Jung that the only possible hope for the man’s recovery was to have a vital spiritual experience. To Jung, “...these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once guiding forces ... are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate...” (page 27).

With this spiritual experience, we tap into a resource which is something greater than ourselves and experience a profound alteration in how we deal with life. This is certainly how it was for me when I ventured into the 12 Step program many years ago. As I studied and practiced the principles of the program to the best of my ability, over time my soul was changed, awakened – which could only be for the better. It was changed by a Power greater than myself and as I expressed those changes, there was a ripple effect on others. My awakening always affects the world in some way.

So it is with prayer. We cannot pray without making a difference in ourselves to some degree and hence in others.

Any time I pray, it is a spiritual experience, one in which my soul is changed, and to some extent yours too. We are One.