December 06 – B, 2025

Merry Christmas regardless of our circumstances!

The following is also to be found as #157 of “Zen Thoughts” on my WordPress blog, “Jim Dollar’s Published Works:”

All living things–all sentient beings–recognize, know, respond to being received and treated lovingly. But, don’t take my word for it. See for yourself.

We make too much over love. Forget love. Forget “I love you.” Treat all of life lovingly. Treat everyone lovingly whether you love them or not. Treat everyone with such loving tenderness and thoughtfulness that they can’t tell if you don’t love them–and, even better, you can’t tell yourself!

And understand deep in your bones/body that is how our Psyche treats us: lovingly, whether we are worth being loved or not. The way the Prodigal’s father treated the Prodigal.

As you surely know by now, I have thrown God as a spiritual being quite completely away, and have declared myself to be an extension of the psychic depths of life and being, and as an expression of that, I am sworn to treating everything, living or not, lovingly throughout what remains of this experience called “being alive.” And, I invite you to join me if you feel like it for the entire remainder of all that is before us.

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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