Christmas week

My family and I got back Saturday from a 9 day trip to our cabin in the Blue Mountains in Oregon State, and as usual, the venture was packed full of spiritual lessons.

We had a great time—peaceful, fun, and spiritually progressive.

We always pray together for health, safety and wise decision-making before going on a trip. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” as the old proverb goes. We can always find a cure when we need one, but preventing a problem in the first place is most desirable!

Except for one evening when Tyler came back severely limping in great pain and distress from bending his leg backward in a hole while running down a snow covered hill in the dark, all went well!

While sitting with him on the couch I reminded him that he was spiritual. He nodded his head in agreement between sobs and listened while I continued to talk to him about his indestructible and unhurtable spiritual self. He calmed down quickly and agreed that God was taking care of him and he would be fine. He favored the leg for a day, but was still able to drive a snowmobile and play with his friends. We are grateful for his rapid recovery. He has always been a very spiritually responsive kid.

Here's Tyler on Balloon Tree Ridge:

Many of you asked how my Christmas day went after I blogged my entry on Christmas eve telling how busy my practice was with emergency cases Christmas 2005.

This year was different! Much calmer than the previous year.

I prayed ahead of time for a day of balance so I could spend a healthy amount of time with my family. I had a dozen or so calls and emails for help, mostly early in the morning, so the holiday was very quiet practice-wise. I was able to cook Christmas dinner with my wife, play Skip-Bo in the afternoon and enjoy a movie with the gang in the evening. It was a bonding progressive day all the way around.

I cannot take a true vacation from my work. My wife knows this.

Whenever we go on a vacation, I take my practice with me. I have such a strong commitment to my patients that I can’t imagine not being available for longer than a half day if a patient expecting to get me calls for help and they really need help. So I’ve learned to set blocks of time aside that I devote wholeheartedly to a family activity, like in the evenings, on the weekends, or on our trips away from home, and then check in with my practice to be sure everyone’s needs are met.

To understand the logic of my work-style you have to understand that the work I do is not work in the traditional understanding of the word. Done rightly, it’s pure bliss and joy. It’s health inducing, happifying and strengthening. My work is to know Truth and Love. No one, in my estimation, can name a single activity in this world that is better for your health, happiness and well being than actively knowing the omnipresence of Truth and Love--which IS practicing Christian Science.

When I stop my work, I start to feel like I’m falling apart. I’m not kidding. That’s when things go downhill. When I keep my thought inspired with spiritual reality, I feel on top of the world, on top of error, and I’m ready to respond to whatever calamity is thrown in my direction. I’m strong. I’m well in a spiritual state of mind. So, to go on a true vacation, for me, is to vacate thought of materialism, disease, and sinful distraction. That’s when I feel my best.

We were particularly adventuresome this week with a pair of Polaris 550 RMK snowmobiles we recently bought. If you want to get a 13 year old boy excited, give him a snowmobile to drive…man, oh man… Thing is, Jenna, our 16 year daughter, had just as much fun as Tyler did riding those power machines.

Here's Jenna all bundled up on a trail:

One evening, we decided to have pizza at the Tollgate Country Store, and part of the fun would be driving our sleds five miles through the forest, at night, to get there. We paired up on each rig. I sat behind Tyler as he navigated his way through the woods. I enjoyed soaking in the scenery, with the stately evergreen trees drenched in the moonlit night, the feather-light layers of white from recent snowfall, and the tranquility of the quiet forest that had not a worry on its still mind.

When we arrived, I spewed out, “Wow! That was such a quiet, peaceful, beautiful trip through the woods.”

My wife retorted, “What quiet? How can you say it was peaceful while riding those loud noisemakers?” Humbled, I realized that I was so caught up in the beauty of our surroundings, I hadn’t noticed the noise of the machines.

Later, I realized there was a lesson there for shutting out the noise of the world to hear the voice of God. Material sense cannot overwhelm our spiritual senses. We must tune-in, like tuning our radio to the station we want to hear. When tuned into one station, we don’t pick up signals going to another.

Friday afternoon, Tyler and I sped the snowmobiles up to Balloon Tree Ridge, a crested hill at the 6000 foot elevation that was an out-of-the-way paradise for sled riders. It was glorious!

Wide open expanse, bumps and hills, dips and turns that would keep any snowmobiler in their element for hours. Whizzing across the open fields at 50 mph gliding over humps catching air over dips and plowing through down-soft snowdrifts is a thrill one doesn’t forget shortly.

Sunny but cold, one had to be dressed warmly to survive. I took off my gloves for a few seconds to maneuver a camera, and my fingers went numb before I could snap one picture. I could not feel the straps on my helmet to buckle it back on so left them dangling until we returned to warmer territory and I was thawed out.

Myself on Balloon Tree Ridge ready to put my helmet back on before I froze:

My sensationless fingers reminded me of the wisdom of not exposing oneself to elements one is not prepared to deal with. This happens frequently in mental environments. People too often naively enter situations they are not equipped to handle metaphysically, and get blind-sided by harmful surprises. We were dressed appropriately for the environment we were in, but were not able to endure without that protection!

“Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

On our last day in the hills, I said to my family while eating lunch around the cabin table, “This was one of the best Christmas vacations I can remember!” They nodded in agreement. It was a long stretch of time in one place removed from the busy-busy of the world, but with friends, children and neighbors in nearby cabins to enjoy the outdoors with. We came home rested, improved, and ready to begin a new year.

Wishing you all a Happy and progressive New Year!