While Living on Earth you are Building a Temple

In this quotation from WHITE EAGLE ON THE GREAT SPIRIT - a really beautiful book by Grace Cooke, which was formerly entitled SUNMEN OF THE AMERICAS - White Eagle is not talking about the creation of a building, but about our own bodies!

I helped Grace Cooke (my grandmother) in the compilation of this book which contains much of White Eagle`s teaching about the American Indian peoples. After watching on television a programme about our best Olympic achievements (at this time when the Olympic games would have taken place), I looked up the chapter `A Healthy Way of Life`, as I remembered her quotation about Pheidipides, the first Olympic runner of ancient Greece who completed the hundred and forty miles between Athens and Sparta in thirty six hours. She also quoted the story of a young American Indian runner who completed a hundred and twenty five miles in twenty five hours, and said this was not an unsual feat as the young were taught that `the body is the sacred temple of the spirit so they did their best to retain it in the peak condition of youth.` She went on to answer the question about whether the Indians in those days actually had a different type of body. She didn`t think so, but said, `White Eagle tells us that the Indian`s pure way of life enabled him to become not only physically, but also emotionally and nervously much tougher than we are today.`

Recently there has been much publicity about the advertising of junk food and obesity, especially in children. During, and since, lockdown we are all being encouraged more than ever before to choose as healthy a diet as we can and take regular exercise. This may not be very easy if we are housebound or have physical difficulties in moving around. If this is a problem for you, take comfort in the knowledge of the power of the light to cleanse and re-vivify not only the physical body, but the mental, emotional and nervous systems too! White Eagle encourages us all to do the best we can to eat healthily and wisely, take what exercise we can, but most of all, to consciously breathe in the magical healing light of the Star. I visualise it circulating to every cell of my body through the blood stream. But I believe that just as important as this is to give love to the temple of our bodies, and especially those parts that may be showing signs of age, and sagging a little! If love is radiating throughout our physical temple, it will be shining in its own unique way, and touch and uplift the hearts of all around us!

Beautiful Butterflies

One of the delights of living in the countryside during this spring and summer time of lockdown has

been the greater abundance in nature.

I have noticed many more happy birds singing and building their nests, more bees happily buzzing, but most of all I have been thrilled to see so many more butterflies around.

One of my favourite television programmes is BBC1's Countryfile, and a few weeks ago there was a delightful feature about a young woman who is a butterfly expert and it showed her looking at the abundant butterflies with her children in the fields near where she lives. She was pointing out their exquisite beauty and infinite variety. It made me want to look even more closely at every butterfly I see and marvel at the wonder of God`s creation.

White Eagle tells us (in Spiritual Unfoldment Volume 2), `There is nothing haphazard in creation, all is perfection - perfect rhythm, perfect form, exactness in every detail. Think for a moment of the beauty of the colour and texture of the butterfly`s wings and reflect that, in order to see its full beauty, you need to look through a miscrosope and to focus a clearer, more powerful light upon it ... look for beauty in your everyday life. Do not take things for granted.`

I think this is another important lockdown lesson - not to take things for granted, and take greater care of what we have in our beautiful world, and of our loved ones too (as I wrote last time).  

Something else which butterflies can teach us is to value the moment and live in the `now`. We need to give our full attention to what is right in front of our eyes (e.g. the exquisite beauty of a peacock, red admiral or orange tip butterflies` wings!) instead of allowing the busy everyday mind to wander on to other thoughts. Nothing lasts for ever, this is one of the facts of life.  Butterflies teach us this. Their little lives are short. Our lives are short in the perspective of eternity, and every moment is an opportunity which may not come again -  to give someone we love our time, our full attention, our happy smile,  some words of comfort and encouragement. Receiving simple little gifts like this can change our days and bring the sunshine out from behind the clouds!

Lockdown Lessons

As lockdown restrictions gradually start to ease, I think many of us are reflecting on lessons being learned during this time. I was reading recently an article about Lorraine Kelly, UK TVs presenter of `Good Morning Britain` and she was saying, `It`s taught me that I don`t need lots of stuff, but I really miss my parents...and I miss seeing my pals in the village for a cup to tea!` I think it has been a time which has brought a unique opportunity to understand more clearly what really does matter in life. People are much more important than things. 

For me, it has also brought a much greater appreciation and thankfulness for our modern day technology which enables us to keep in touch with family and friends,  even though physically far apart. I am not someone who has taken readily to computers and the internet, (being of the generation that `missed out` on learning these forms of communication when we were young), but I am now experiencing more fully than ever before the wonders of Zoom and WhatsApp. It is great to be able to communicate with my White Eagle friends and family all around the world - not just speaking, but `seeing` too. But I don`t think any technology can ever replace the joy of actually being physically present with someone you love. (Even though, with the help of White Eagle`s teaching, I am learning more and more about the reality of being with people I love who have passed on.)

So, maybe, one important lockdown lesson is indeed placing greater value on time with loved ones, and making sure that when the restrictions end we don`t fill our lives too full again with other things, and make time to be with loved ones. I remember when my dear Dad suddenly passed on I wished I had done this. It is a great comfort to me to know that I now spend time with him in his heavenly garden, and I often feel him around. (The cheerful robin singing in the garden has always been one of those signs that here he is). But now I know for sure that having time for loved ones, is far more important than things!

Reflecting along these lines, I found comfort as I read these words (on a rainbow theme!) in White Eagle`s little book, THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR STRENGTH:

`A sorrow can be like a rainy day with sunlight shining through. And sun through rain creates a rainbow. So it is with human life. Look to the sunlight of God knowing that your Father-Mother will send you nothing but good, that your loved ones are in God`s care, and that God`s love for them is greater than your own!`