Progress In Contemplation

TUES., AUG. 4, 1998, 6:31 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your itching, burning feet made sleeping difficult this early morning, but after 4 hours or so, here you are, letting them bring you to Me and this familiar form of meditation. You certainly know by now that I can use “uncomfortable events” of many sorts to get your attention. Today you heeded… as I desired.

You experienced some success in contemplation yesterday. That is satisfaction in itself, but I need to comment, as well. At your stage in earth life… the golden years… contemplation begins with the past, applies it to the present, and considers a glimpse of a future. It also can be a review of what you have learned in the past and then an application of this to this present situation, leading on to a future. And I purposely say “a future” because there still are alternatives for how your actual future will be.

It is good that you see, increasingly, the connections between the events in your life, seeing how decisions led to actions and experiences that do fit together quite well. It really isn’t important, say I, which decisions and actions were yours alone, yours influenced by Me or primarily Mine. You do not have “free will”… certainly as an “absolute”. I can supercede your will, and I have. More often I just influence you so that My Will is done… and the “pattern” for your life, which We worked out before your birth, is generally fulfilled.

This is not an all of none “phenomenon”. There are some humans whom I guide and direct from early childhood and throughout life. At the other extreme are those who reject any guidance and insist on “living their own lives”. (Some are pleased with the life lived, most are not.) In between the extremes are many variations of independence and guidance. As I have told you it is not common for Me to come to one chosen… you… in such a direct way as this that you write. But every now and again I decide to show forth an example of My Teaching – Guiding in a tangible way. The volumes behind you are a unique evidence of how faithful each of us can be to the other… and how loquacious I can be.

As you contemplate this Farm-place, you have some satisfactions and some disappointments… in yourself. You envision how it “could be”, and this brings disappointment in your purposive actions… in tasks not attempted or completed. You needn’t try to over-organize your life, in these latter, slower years, but you can set certain tasks, for a day… or a week… and seek to accomplish these. When you set no priorities or goals you are likely to accomplish less than is pleasing to you.

If you contemplate with honesty and integrity you can be alternately pleased and chagrined at what you recall. Yet I have encouraged you to see life positively, not dwelling on the mistakes and shortcomings. I still favor this. Don’t let yourself slip into excessive focus on “what could have been”. Accept “what is” and make it as worthwhile as you can.

As a father you critique yourself. You weren’t supreme in this role, and you wish you had been better. Yet you see your sons living worthwhile lives, seeking My Help, even as their lives are different from yours, in many ways. What is success in being a father? To be needed and relied upon or to be unnecessary but loved for that? Your capacities to “keep up” with this modern age are diminishing. You show forth about the “right combination” of frustration and acceptance. And there can be some satisfaction in seeing that each of them cannot be perfect either. Parenting is both a satisfying and a worrisome role, even when its active phase seems to be over.