My wife Laura and I moved to the mountains. Here we are in 3 feet of Spring snow. Down in the left hand corner of this picture is our dog, Maddie. The day after we took this picture, Maddie died. She was 12 years old and had been the mascot of our blended family. Observing grief is interesting experience. I had been reading Lillian DeWater's book God is All (1928) in which she relates how she healed her dying canary by receiving illumination and inspiration. I wanted to do the same for my dog. With three feet of snow, I had lots of tiime for reflection and reading. Since I'm reading all of Lillian DeWaters writings, I found that she changed her position somewhere about 1940. She wrote "Light" (1950) as a companion to "God is All." Here she says: "The answer to the world's problems is not to be found in the healing of diseases or in the overcoming of wars. The deep significance of this hour is that we turn ou hearts from all else to God for direct light, vision and revelation." "To be at all we must be this One." "Spiirit -- the One I Am - the I or Identity of all---is Here and Now always the same - invincible, unchangeable, absolute."

Maddie the dog was more than appeared to human eyes. She was the result of work I did with Joel Goldsmith. I had a "mortal" fear of dogs since paperboy days. And reading Joel's message one cannot escape his theme of "there are not two powers, good and evil. Good is the one power." Gradually I overcame my fear of dogs and Maddie was my first dog. She introduced me to the wonderful world of love appearing as animals.

We decided to plant trees on our new property in her memory.

Across the Unknown

I took a couple of weeks off to read S.I. Hayakawa’s book, Language in Thought and Action. I think this is a very important book. My brother asked me once, “Don’t you ever read books newer than 1950?” Being a product of 1950’s to 1970’s American education when I read the pioneering works on scientific metaphysics I feel as though there’s a huge gap in my learning. Much of my research has been reading old books to fill that gap. One such book was Across the Unknown, by Stewart Edward White. According to Amazon, Stewart Edward White was a beloved author of Western adventure stories who devoted the last 30 years of his life to writing accounts of his wife's mediumistic explorations of the inner dimensions of life. His books are rightly regarded as classics in the field of spiritual growth.
When I read a book, only a few ideas really stick with me. Here is one from White’s book:
“The struggle of each generation is the interpretation of the whispered allotment of wisdom into the current vernacular. You are at a turning point of a great tide. Who is there to offer guidance in the age-proven technique of living, and yet point ahead to the regions we are appointed to explore? We arraign your generation for its failure to establish faith in the proven laws of living.” - The Invisibles