God created man

     In the beginning, man,

          conceived in Mind,
               reflects Soul; 
          formed of Spirit,
               likens Principle;
          known by Life, Truth & Love,
               images God,
                    now and forever.

                                                            ~Carolyn St.Charles

     Man reflects God by virtue of his authentic DNA. 
     Man, who lives in the world, is conformed by God.

     Man experiences pain when not aware of this fact.
     Man, who holds he is agnostic or an atheist, sleeps.

     Man dreams his world and claims it as his creation.
     Man, tossing and turning, tries to govern but cannot.
    
     Man becomes battle-tired and hears his name called.
     Man, opening his eyes, clears away the blurring veil.

     Man was mystified by the unreal but now is awake.
     Man, feeling satisfied, healthy and joyous, laughs.
     
     Man knows the good, truth and beauty as God said.

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Note to my readers: You are warmly invited to download and use the CaroNote images according to the Creative Commons license that requires attribution wherever used, whether adapted, used alone or in combination AND that your usage conforms to the Golden Rule and is respectful of the message they contain.

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#synonymsforGod #LifeTruthLoveSoulSpiritPrincipleMind #inthebeginning #God #creation #reflection #imageandlikeness #ChristianScience #healing #reality #dream
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In a word, columns.

 Why are you grateful for church?

In a word, columns. The spiritual idea of Church has often been expressed by using classical architectural designs that usually include columns. Columns express many qualities. They are beautiful, solid, mathematical structural elements. They are silent sentinels that inspire thoughts of simplicity, strength, beauty, trustworthiness and more in all who pass through and by. Church columns, to me, represent the congregation. To explain why, I wrote the following folk tale.

The boy who wanted to leave his village

Grey Hairs, the village elder, was quietly listening to a boy who wanted to leave his village because it was an unhappy place and made him unhappy. As he listened, he picked up a slender stick from the ground. When the boy fell silent, he asked the boy if he could break it. The boy laughed and snapped it in two.

The elder then picked up a number of slender sticks, took a strip of bark from a tree limb, wrapped the bundle with the bark strip and tied it. He handed the bundle to the boy and asked him if he could break the bundle. Laughing, the boy took the bundle and tried to snap it but could not. A frown formed on his brow as he applied more strength but still could not snap the bundle.

Grey Hairs then began to take away sticks from the bundle one by one. Each time he removed a stick, he retied the bark strip and asked the boy if he could break the bundle. After taking away several sticks the boy snapped the bundle. The elder asked the boy what he had learned.

After thinking for a few minutes, the boy looked into the eyes of Grey Hairs and said, "If I leave my village because it is an unhappy place, my village will be less strong. If more boys feel like me and leave, our village will be snapped by adversity and become as dust in the wind. Our families will be carried away like the dust, too. Grey Hairs, I love my family, but how can I stay in this unhappy village? I want to live in a happy place.”

Grey Hairs put his head close to the boy's ear and whispered, “Then change it, my boy. Change comes from within! If you want a happy village, share your joy. Joy is like leaven, share your joy until the whole village is leavened.”

In the next moment, the boy heard his mother call for him. He quickly told Grey Hairs goodbye and started walking to his house. As he walked, he thought about how when he would skip down the road and whistle like a bird, some of the villagers would smile at him. They didn't join in but they smiled. Then he remembered how each day, more of them would be in their yards when he skipped by. Next he remembered the day that one of them waved at him and how the day after, there was a treat waiting on the fence for him. They all seemed happy to see him and he felt happy  thinking of them.

“How could the village be an unhappy place if the villagers that he knew were happy?” he wondered.

When he was about half way to his house, he thought about the bundle of sticks. Suddenly the image bundle of sticks seemed to change into a bundle of villagers, a village that could not be snapped. A strong bundle of happy villagers. And with everyone standing tall they looked a little bit like the beautiful column his dad drew in the dust one afternoon.

The boy grinned as he walk in the door of his house. He had just realized that he didn't want to leave his village. In fact his village felt totally happy. 

"Mom," he said, "Grey Hairs taught me something about our village. It made me realize that I don't want to leave. In fact, I can't leave. I have work to do. I must share my joy and let it leaven the whole village. It would be foolish of me to leave our happy village."

The boy's mother sighed with relief and hugged him tight and gave him a fresh baked cake that only angels should make. But that is another tale for another day.

Back to Question #77, isn't it quite possible that the column drawn in the dust was like one of the columns at your Church and represents your happy congregation standing together and standing tall?   

+ Carolyn St.Charles

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Church Alive Question #77:  http://goo.gl/9uQNW

Image: http://openclipart.org/detail/86149/column-by-cybergedeon

B's 5th, Johnathan, you and Soul

Sometimes joy is simply complete. Young children are pure joy to watch as they explore and interact with life, with music, with colors, with weather, with anything and everything. Joy in observation is often complete in and of itself.

I found such joy in watching child is named Johnathan who, at 3, is well on his way to becoming a Symphony Conductor. On his mom's YouTube channel, there are a variety of videos starring Johnathan as Conductor and as Violinist. In the sidebar there are suggested videos of other children performing. The expression of Soul in all these videos is as exciting as it is amazing. 

Just think about it. Soul knows and bestows all that it has on each of us. Soul's infinite resources remain infinite after the many generations of man have received of its magnanimity. There is no end to Soul's provision for every one of us.

Enjoy the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker co-conducted by Herbert von Karajan and Johnathan. Let Soul speak imperatively to you of your heart's desire. Soul placed it there for you to discover and find delight in it. You are the beloved of Soul and abundantly blessed.

Johnathan and Herbert conducting

Like Johnathan, we are free to express Soul with abandon. What will you freely express of Soul today? It is absolutely safe to trust and reflect Life.

    Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment.  ~Mary Baker Eddy (1)

Would love to know what Soul told you and what you did about it.... 

+Carolyn St.Charles

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(1)  60:29 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
LINKS:
YouTube Channel: esenuk 
Link: http://goo.gl/2KT3u
Poster: +Carolyn St.Charles

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Haiti, Haiti, Haiti

   Haiti's cry for comfort asks us to let go of a material person. It asks us to understand that life cannot be extinguished and that mankind's reflected life is deathless. Those that appear to have departed from a material body that so easily decays continue to be embraced in the everlasting arms of love. We cannot see spirit, god, or spirit's image and likeness with material eyes.

   Therefore, we must hold to what we know. We must refuse to believe beginnings and endings. We must close our eyes and discern love's reality in the place of every lie about love. A lie has no power, it has no truth, it has no life because god did not create it. Good is visible to the heart in the midst of mankind's extremity.

   We imprison when we label haiti and its people as "poorest in the western hemisphere." They are the rightly blessed "poor in spirit." Knowing this truth, they sing.

   Join with the haitians as they sing in the face of extremity. Haitians' singing reminds not only haitians, themselves, but also we who watch and pray that life, good, simply cannot be destroyed. Their voices teach the power of gratitude, hope and joy to "feed the famished affections."

   We do much when we appreciate haitians as neighbors and peers, join in their singing and together take the needed human footsteps. We do much when we exhibit normal activity. We do most when we walk with and share their song. In that way, we express love that comforts, inspires and heals.

These meta-thoughts were written and later posted in the hope

they would "afford prove of [their] utility" to you, loving reader

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