The crocodile trainer uses a distraction to maintain a safe distance from its powerful jaws. He enters the pen and throws the croc a piece of rope to chew on while he maneuvers to a safe place from which to feed and appease this fearsome beast.
Fear, like a powerful beast, can grip our minds and hearts in its jaws and pull us into a downward spiral. Unattended, not managed, it often develops into anger, hatred and exclusion. Managing or treating the extended symptoms of fear is a temporary and inadequate response for it fails to resolve the underlying cause.
Fear is a tool of the human psyche meant to preserve our physical safety. Its only job is to alert us to the possibility of danger. The problem is in its primitiveness. It cannot discern between the real and the unreal. It does not sense the difference between that past, present and future. It cannot see beyond the physical senses. It sees but has no vision. It hears but cannot listen. It feels but cannot touch. The response is up to us. The typical responses; fight (anger), flight (leave) or freeze (apathy) are inadequate, for they fail to create a sustained sense of safety. They do not appease the aspect of consciousness that raises the symptoms of fear.
So, what to do then? A completely new response to fear must be implemented if we are to transcend its grip and evolve as a collective consciousness. Facing fear and its extended we bring them into the Light of greater understanding. We recognize the underlying cause as fear and we shine the Light of Love and Harmony. We create for ourselves and safe space sheltered by the shield of Divine Love that transforms and harmonizes the energies of hatred and fear. From the shelter of Divine Love we open our hearts to forgiveness and inclusion. We refuse to engage in hatred. We refuse to respond with anger. We allow a greater wisdom and peace to transfuse our minds and hearts and we become the beacons of Light. We hold an image of Love and Light that transforms every fear-filled soul into a vessel of peace and harmony. We listen with our hearts and we respond with Love. We hear the crocodile mind speaking from the back of our humanness and we say Peace, Be Still. The Christ in me is awakened. Thanks for the warning but God and I have got this.
© 2017. Rev. Eileen Patra. Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving as pastor at Unity of Livonia in Michigan.
For those of you who generally follow my posts you may have noticed I’ve been on a blogging hiatus. I’ve found myself on a path I could not have predicted as my husband’s journey of healing has taken the spotlight in our lives. As a firm believer in the power of the mind to create our experiences and of the natural state of wholeness that underlies any appearance of illness, a sudden health challenge should be a simple matter, right? Well, in fact, it is simple, but the mind is a complicated aspect of our consciousness, not easily harnessed. It can be like a wild horse taking flight … in a variety of possible directions. 
Think about how a PENDULUM works. It is drawn from its center by a force or energy. Eventually, after swinging to and fro, it will return to center as the force of gravity pulls it back. If more force or energy is applied to the original swing, the return to center will be delayed. The workings of a PENDULUM are predictable and simultaneously miraculous; predictable as a law of physics, miraculous in its manifestation of Truth. Spiritually, we are sometimes pulled from our center by outside energies and experiences. But just as predictable as the return of the PENDULUM, we too return to center. The miracle occurs when we make the conscious choice to defy the pull of outer energies and return right here, right now to our spiritual center. The laws of physics are predictable, but the Law of Principle, the nature of God, the power of God within us, transcends the laws of physics. This we experience as the miraculous. Today I remember the miracle of the PENDULUM and I apply the force of Spirit upon the PENDULUM of emotion and I return quickly and easily to center. From this place in the center of me I let my light shine that others may see the presence of God and be returned to center as well. 
The Changing Leaves are always a miraculous sight for those of us in climates that provide this annual display of colorful foliage. The predictable transformation has become synonymous with change and a reminder that there is always new life, new growth just beyond what appears to be death. What is truly remarkable about the process is what causes the change in colors. As the hours of daylight become less, the tree responds to an inner signal. The signal is not to drop its leaves although that is what occurs. The signal is to begin new growth. The tree begins to direct its resources to new growth, to the buds that will occur in the spring. This focus on the new growth in turn diminishes the flow of nutrients to the current leaves and they respond by fading, falling and preparing the space for the new buds. As always, when I look at the falling leaves I know that new life will occur in the spring but today I recognize that the forming of new buds has already begun. In life, as I see something fading away, I know on an inner level that something new is forming within me. What falls away prepares the space for what is being called forth in me. This is the miracle of transformation that occurs in the trees, in my life and in the world. 
HOPE is a doorway to the miraculous. HOPE is our ability to expect a positive outcome when there seems to be little evidence of it. HOPE is the first glimmer of Faith that causes us to take action. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment HOPED that she would be healed. After 12 years of hemorrhaging, she saw a glimmer of HOPE in Him and His growing reputation as a miraculous healer. Jesus told her that her Faith had made her well. Faith is HOPE in action. It is HOPE that causes the quickening of Faith, Strength and Will. When we look out into the world and wonder how we can stop the hemorrhaging, it is this miraculous ability to have HOPE that stirs the greater power of the Christ in us to take positive action in order to manifest the peace, harmony and wholeness we wish to see and experience. Through HOPE we know that our prayer intentions are more than just a plea to a chaotic universe. Through HOPE we establish ourselves in the power and presence of the invisible Source of all peace and harmony. We align our minds and hearts with the All-ness of God and our Faith returns us to the wholeness from which we come. Today is the day to have HOPE and move in the direction of this miraculous stimulus for healing
FOSSILS, petrified bits of earthly history, are miraculous vessels of time. They provide a peek into the past of our planet giving us a three-dimensional snapshot to all that transpired before us. They are fascinating to behold and sometimes offer us clues to living more harmoniously with our environment than the lifeforms that preceded us. The soul of humankind, the individualized expression of God is also a vessel of time. The soul holds all the experiences of a person, each thought and emotion captured and stored for our review. Unlike a FOSSIL though, we are not petrified. What we hold in the history of our beingness is not written in stone. What has been written in our minds and hearts can be changed, evolved, transformed and even dissolved. That thought, that belief you’ve lived with for so long that leaves a heavy, uncomfortable imprint in you? What would it look like if you changed it? What would it look like if you evolved it, allowed it to grow into something more affirming and whole? What would you look like if you simply let it go?
The CHANGING COLORS of leaves in the northern autumn season are a miraculous display of life renewing itself. Today I saw just three leaves on our maple tree that had turned a brilliant, maize. The brightly colored foliage was nested in a ground of deep, green leaves that had not yet begun to turn. Change, whether the color of leaves, or the unfolding of our lives, often occurs just a little at a time. Why rush when the real beauty lies in beholding the process? The leaves will change according their own perfect timing. Each stage will be a glorious sight to see. Our own transformation often begins with just a glimpse of something small but brighter. This process too is beautiful to behold and will unfold according to its own innate and perfect timing. The CHANGING COLORS are beautiful, and remind me of the miracles at work continuously within me. 
DEW, the moisture that appears on the grass and plants in the early morning hours is a mystery to me; a miracle in a sense. I know I can look up the process and find details about condensation and heat and humidity and such, but still the appearance of DEW in the morning has a magical quality. Where there was no moisture before, it suddenly appears. DEW provides much needed moisture to the grass, the plants and the insect world, appearing when all was dry just moments before. In life, there are miracles like the appearance of DEW all around us every day; the phone call from a friend when we were feeling lonely; the traffic that keeps us from the 10-car collision down the road; the smile of a baby in the grocery store line that reminds us of the joy and amazement of life just when we needed it. Like DEW, these things appear miraculously and satisfy our thirst for connection, safety and harmony. Where there was darkness moments ago, there is suddenly Light and what was dry and thirsting is quenched.
The BIBLE is a sacred text with miraculous qualities that are often missed when focused only on the words on the page. The miracle of the BIBLE is that the Word of God permeates every copy, every edition, every version in a way that transcends the translation errors, the political manipulations of the text, and even the consciousness of its human authors. You see, the “Word” is not the words on the page. It never has been. Rather it is the very Idea in the Mind of God that reaches through the text to the mind and heart of those who read it with the pure intention to commune with God. The mistake that is often made is to believe that another can tell you the absolute meaning of a passage. Although this can be very helpful, and there are those with great wisdom who connect with God through their own readings, the Truest message from God comes through when one sets the intention to be with God and allow the “Word” that is without syllables, translation, or text to be transmitted in their heart. 
A LASER, an extraordinary focused beam of Light has truly miraculous capabilities. Simple waves of Light that usually bounce off of objects of matter, become capable of cutting through the densest structures of steel. The same powerful LASER beam is capable of the most delicate and intricate medical procedures, isolating and dissolving unhealthy cells or tumors without disturbing the surrounding tissues. Even the delicate structure of the human eye can be treated with a LASER to improve or restore eyesight. Like LASER beams, we too are made of Light and we too can achieve miraculous results by focusing and concentrating our thoughts and awareness on that which we wish to experience. Faith is the tool that gathers the Light in us, Prayer and Affirmations concentrate our awareness, dissolving what is not aligned with the Light in us. Through this heightened and focused awareness, we can cut through seemingly immovable obstacles. We can perform the intricate procedure of dissolving thoughts and beliefs that keep us small. Through the focused awareness of ourselves as Light, as offspring of the Light of God, we become like LASERs, cutting through the delicate veil that separates the world of form from the vastness of Beingness; and suddenly, we see with pinpoint accuracy, the Oneness of God that has always there all along. The LASER beam of Light focused on God shining through, reveals the Kingdom of the Heavens that has surrounded us from the beginning but we have failed to see.
Eileen Patra 