Spring Time Allergies Don’t Need to Bloom

Spring time brings flowers and newness, but for some people, spring time also brings on the allergies. And, what a bother allergies can be!

Over twenty years ago, during the spring, my sinuses were plugged for weeks. This went on for a few years and I would pray for God to heal me. Oh, my prayers were insightful and intellectually wonderful, but my nose was still plugged.

One day, I went for a walk. We lived on an orchard so I had to walk through flowering trees, bursting with pollen. The pollen was necessary for the fruit. How could something be so good, yet so bad?

But, during the walk, I got the notion to return home and look up the word “allergy” in the dictionary. So, I did.

The first definition of allergy described the physical reaction I was all too familiar with. But, there was a second definition of “antipathy,” which means hate. I sat there for a minute and contemplated hate. I didn’t hate anyone. But, deep in the abyss of thought I did hate when the wind made working on the farm difficult. At first this hate seemed so minor, so justified, that I almost blew it off, but I found a verse in the Bible that shed light on an inspiration, “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” (Rom. 12:9, NIV) I decided I needed to hate hate, because hate is an evil, not from God, Love. In order to cling to good, hate, in any form, could not be allowed to cling to me, or clog my nose!

To cling to good was my only medicine. The allergy didn’t disappear over night. It eventually went away, however, it returned the next spring, only it was a bit weaker. The next year, it was unnoticeable. And, for the next twenty years it rarely shows up. Clinging to good takes constant exercise. But, Love is constant and the results of exercising love are worth it. Especially when my husband and I drove our motorcycles across the country, because sneezing and blowing your nose while you have a helmet on doesn’t work!

“Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgement, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.”–Mary Baker Eddy

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Going Home

What a successful trip to Seattle I had. The East West Bookshop was an excellent and hospitable venue for my book talk on 21st Century Science and Health. The audience was very interactive and asked fantastic questions. I appreciate seekers of truth, because they help me on my spiritual journey. I also appreciated being able to visit with my daughter and son-in-law. Wow, they can cook up a tasty meal and keep Mom fed.  We recalled the trip Carly and I made to Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand a few years ago. We tried as many extreme sports as we could muster. We both loved hang gliding in New Zealand, but when it came to the bunging jumping, Carly went on her own. I took the picture.

Carly, bunging jumping in Australia

Now, I head back to upstate New York, where the weather is chilly and known to still drop some snow flurries. But, I love it.

Melting Snow

A Patch of Old Snow

There’s a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten —
If I ever read it.
— Robert Frost

Stone wall on Frost’s farm, NH

 

“Damp atmospheres and freezing snow can give rosy complexions. You don’t have to indulge in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes. You don’t have to fear pneumonia, or depend on antibiotics, vapor therapy, or antihistamines. You can rely on something better than the fruit of the “knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen. 2:9)”–21st Century Science and Health