Let's Get Some Joy

Reflections on Easter 2021:

Stepping into the unknown, the silence, we get on the path less traveled, the road not always taken - to paraphrase Robert Frost. In our year of Awakening, we have stepped into believing It and loving It. Then we observed It, and now it's time to Declutter It...with joy.

We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul forever expanding.

We believe that we experience this expansion to the degree that we become conscious of it, awakening to it wisdom and allowing ourselves to be free from discord of every nature. And if we step away from that awareness, it's always there to resurrect Itself in our lives. 

Easter celebrates the presence, power, love, and wisdom of one who believed this. He is called the great exception, Yeshua ben Yosef (Joshua son of Joseph - a common name for the times). He grew up to become a radical evolutionary who dared go against the grain of the Jewish religion and establishment

In Matthew 5:17, Yeshua was quoted as saying, 

Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

Did he walk on water? I don't know.

Did he raise Lazarus from the dead? I don't know.

Did he heal the sick and diseased and multiply the loaves and fishes? I don't know and I don't really care....at least it doesn't matter to me in order to appreciate him. What matters is the lessons the Gospels spoke about that came from him. All the Gospels, not just the New Testament.

Here's a guy who taught joy. To me, joy is not about happiness, which is a state of mind, a mood that comes and goes per an experience or the anticipation of an experience. Joy is a state of belief and being. Joy is found in a deep connection to God, the true source and substance of the experiences you may or may not be happy about. This man called Jesus lived his life...on purpose and in joy.

Who was this long-haired Jew that most of the world commemorates on Easter? And why is the story of this simple guy is so important as an example to us all? Yeshua was:

• A Way Shower living a life teaching what Ezekial spoke of in 36:26:  A new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Which means a consciousness full of feeling, in rhythm with and vibrating at the speed of the Divine.
• A radical nonviolent revolutionary who hung out with lepers, prostitutes, rich man, poor man, young and old.
• Forgiveness was his game and he taught us to forgive 70 times 7, as often and as long as it takes to reach the resurrection of the daily use of our highest self. 
• A brown-skinned middle-eastern Jew that didn't speak English, Greek, or Latin.
• A homeless community organizer.
• A healer that never asked for a co-pay, only that you believed in your healing.

He didn't teach:

• Against birth control or abortion
• The death penalty or torture as being acceptable
• Baptism - see John 4
• Holy Communion as a sacred ritual
• Anything about sexuality
• Wealth made you a more successful person or lack of wealth made you a less successful person
• The concept of hell or that heaven was an afterlife location or somewhere out beyond the skies
• The concept of Original Sin, nor did he speak of man’s fall from God’s Grace. 

He DID teach:

• Oneness - respect for each other, no matter the social standing.
• Love was the only way.
• Purifying the soul was capable through forgiveness.
• That the Power and Presence of the Divine is within:  The Kingdom of God is within you.  ~Luke 18:21
• Manifesting was through belief or faith or consciousness (right thinking or righteousness), and the power of our perceptions is key to our life's experiences:  Your Faith has healed you... and If you have Faith the size of a mustard seed... and Let it be to you according to your Belief... ~Luke 17:19, Mark 5:34, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 9:29
• You speak a gospel (a joyous word) when you pray, revealing the Divine Council which is available at all times.  ~Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4 (Lord's Prayer)
• God is like a beloved parent, the ever-present counsel that created all and is in all and does the heavy-lifting, through the Law of Cause and Effect.  ~Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4 (Lord's Prayer)
• Prayer is a personal communion between oneself and the Divine:  Go into your inner room and lock the door... and ...do not pray to be seen or that others can hear…  ~Matthew 6:5-6
• The Divine Light and the Inner Light are the same: You are the Light of the World …give light to all who are in the house! and Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works. ~Matthew 5:14 – 16 (also in “Godspell”)
• Non-Judgment, Nonresistance, Detachment & Release in The Parables of the Rich Man & Young Man & The Parable of the Woman caught in adultery & the Pharisees in the Temple.
• The Laws of Abundance:  I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. ~John 10:10
• The way of overcoming obstacles is through surrendering to a Higher Power which comes through communing with our Highest Self.

...Jesus’s many parables of the Kingdom ...lean heavily on the language of growth and development. His common metaphors for growth are the seed, the growing ear of corn, weeds and wheat growing together, and the rising of yeast. His parable of the “reign of God” are …about finding, discovering, being surprised, experiencing reversals of expectations, changing roles and status. None of these notions are static; they are always about something new and good coming into being.  ~Richard Rohr, Universal Christ 

Let the evil pass over you by sacrificing your lack and limitation, hate and judgment, and have an exodus from that kind of bondage. Elaine Pagels reminds us that...

...the Gospel of Thomas talks about how you must go in a sort of a spiritual quest of your own to discover who you are, and to discover really that you are the child of God just like Jesus.

You are the child of God...

- a perfect idea to blossom this Spring - 

...the Light of the world

Actively resurrect your greatest self by tapping into the Truth every day and take action on what you hear in the silence. Let's get some joy by communing with our innermost and highest Light. And not only know our Truth but live it!

...just like Yeshua taught!

Affirmative Incantation

As I observe the Power and Presence that is within, I focus on Its unconditional love and tap into Its infinite wisdom. I look at the world through my Divine Matrix, melding the intelligence, feelings, and inspiration that await me.

I look at my world as one in unity with all Nature, expecting kindness, respect, and love to illuminate every experience. My responses are heartfelt, thoughtful, and speak only to my values and purpose.

It is now that I heed the call to commune with the Universe and activate my highest self. I embrace this joyous transformation and allow me to enter the land of milk and honey, abundant with prosperity in all facets of this creative life.

Resistance is Futile

 

Our theme for January was "Love It."  February brought us:

• Black History Month and part of the Season of Non-Violence
• Groundhog Day, Tater Tot, and Ukelele Day is also in February
• So is Washington, Lincoln, Bob Marley, and Frederick Douglass' Birthdays
• The Periodic Table has a day in February and so does doggy bones and toothaches
• The Chinese New Year was on the 12th – of the Ox
• The Jewish holiday, Purim was on the 26th, commemorating the victory of Queen Esther of Persia in saving the Jewish people from execution by Haman, the advisor to the king
• And Lent began on the 17th, reminding Christians of Yeshua's 40-day sacrifice in the desert

Lives to remember, foods to enjoy, events to commemorate, rituals in which to partake, ideas to contemplate, and of course, love to celebrate - so much in 28 days. But all of that is man-made. I say so not to lessen its significance, but to show its exquisiteness and uniqueness. A uniqueness only possible through the loving expression of God.

In going within, we do not turn to our own spirituality or our own goodness or our own strength or our own knowledge; but we go within to unleash the Infinite Invisible.  ~Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Meditation 

We are individuations of the One Universal Power & Presence and we each act in this Oneness to unleash that Infinite Invisible from within. We don't have to spend days in the desert or atop a mountain or live in a cave. Each is their own mystics able to live the mystical experience by letting God be God in them and as them.

You are Divine now...it is your birthright. Your uniqueness, talents, and dreams are all waiting for you to WAKE UP and accept your divinity! It is only our resistance to this Truth that gets in our way. When we resist, we strive against or oppose something, the polar opposite of working a resolution. Changing things in our life begins with not wanting to experience this or that anymore; to set up a barrier to reliving that idea. But that is where resistance should quickly end.

One of the most notorious creatures from the Star Trek universe is the Borg. In the 1990 third-season finale of The Next Generation series, the evil Borg sent an audio message to those whom their collective would absorb (imagine ominous robotic voice):  “We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.”

“Wow,” you may think, “Rev. Jay is comparing our Oneness and connection to Spirit to the Borg?” In a way, yes. I don't claim we are all some sort of spiritual cyborgs roaming the earth. But take away your biology and technology and what is left? ...your etiology – your causation and origination ... your most basic self - your Godness!

We are in a collective of sorts, not evil like the Borg, but one that is available through the conscious activity of embodying Spirit; a complete emancipation from discord that no one can truly take away without our permission.

On July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Garrett Epps, Professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, wrote this about the 14th amendment:

Its centerpiece is the idea that citizenship in the United States is universal—that we are one nation, with one class of citizens, and that citizenship extends to everyone born here. Citizens have rights that neither the federal government nor any state can revoke at will; even undocumented immigrants—"persons", in the language of the amendment—have rights to due process and equal protection of the law.

Yet, the road to freedom does not truly lay in amendments to a constitution or any set of man-made laws again, not to lessen the efforts of Federick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thaddeus Stephens, and other abolitionists or 13th/14th amendment proponents. However, freedom must be made first in the minds and hearts of those whose values and beliefs equaled that pronouncement. It may have started as a resistance to hate, inequality, and unjust actions and ideas, but accepting it first -remember this is not about permission- acceptance allows us to transform those ideas from the resistance of the negative into working for something that is positive and a part of Nature's Laws. Before emancipation could be a fact in the United States, the Truth of our equality and Oneness within the creations of the Universe had to be recognized and accepted to set man free. In other words, our minds had to echo through our communion with the eternal Thing Itself.

The sooner we awaken to Truth and live it holistically, and not just in our heads, the sooner we shall become factually free & happy, no matter the conditions we experience or the laws or amendments to any constitution. Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor - founder of logotherapy, a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force - wrote:

The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. ...Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  

Yes, we are obligated to enact laws to codify our understanding of Truth. God does not condone enslaving or mistreating anyone and we cannot be free in our spirit nor free in our mind when we withhold human liberty from another; neither can we be truly free when we kill, maim, cage, strike, spit upon, tear gas or shoot another. We can only be completely free when we respect and honor all of life. Those not participating in the Divine collective of Oneness, peace, and Universal love are bound to suffer the consequences of having a void in their heart filled with more hate, fear, shame helplessness, powerlessness, injustice, and inadequacy....all learned feelings one decides to embrace.

But when you fill that void, no matter the size, with Spirit, you gain a foundation to build upon. You step into a world where kinship with all life connects and prospers in you, guides you with spiritual wisdom...a world that will show up without police brutality, white privilege, or any cultural beliefs of superiority and its inherent arrogance and delusions

I am not telling you to bypass what may be lurking inside - confusing you, irritating you. The resolution, however, must begin with who you are. Looking for approval outside of yourself is futile - it will never fill any void. Remember you are worthy NOW and you're pre-approved for your highest good now, as well.

     Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  ~Teilhard de Chardin

Are there areas of joy in your life that could support you in remembering that God is always everywhere equally present?

Find them...Nurture them. 

Incorporate them where the joy isn't as strong

It’s foolish and futile, to dedicate your time and attention to resisting what you don’t want. Reapply your energy toward what you do want and plan a prudent spiritual practice, then a wise practical course of action. When we choose to love the awakening to our highest self, we ease the effects of the negative and ease the inclusion of the positive, and we reveal the wisdom of the ages and disclose the best we have to offer to the world and beyond. Believing and loving who you are is a powerful antidote for lack and limitation, depression and distress, dis-harmony and dis-ease.

Allow the Divine's Love and Wisdom into your life

Resistance is futile!

Affirmative Incantation

Divine Love acts through me and the Law of Love frees me to be my best. Today I offer myself to loving this loved life. 

I am dedicated to being my best today, declaring superlative thoughts, revealing my highest ideas, best practices, the deepest empowering beliefs, and the most succulent experiences.

This day is my day and I express it with joy in my heart, a twinkle in my eye, and a spring in my step.

Watch out world, here I Am!

Tax Deductible Love Offerings: PayPal.me/newthoughtsc

or on your Givelify app

Venmo: NewThought-SpiritualCenter

Support us as your AmazonSmile and at iGive.com

Facebook: @newthoughtsc   Twitter: @newthoughtsc   Instagram: @newthoughtsc

Website: https://www.newthoughtsc.org

2021 New Thought Spiritual Center. All rights reserved.

Going With the Flow

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius encouraged people not to waste energy by fighting against society. He called it..."Going with the flow." Now, going with the flow has come to mean having a relaxed attitude, letting life carry you along. After all - “what you resist persists,” right?

I've been described as someone who goes with the flow; easy-going, keeping my neutrality in conflicts. Yet I have found that the practice of going with the flow can also lead to laziness or playing the spiritual bypass game or having a reluctance to taking life seriously or deeply or by the collar, when necessary.

Today, I want to about the power and depth in going with the flow in a spiritually conscious & mindful way by going with the flow on the River of the Divine You. 

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.  ~Lao-Tzu

Going with the flow doesn't have to be a cop-out, accepting life's lemons as the end of the story. You and I create the flow by getting in the Flow on the River of Love and Law. It may not be all peaches and cream and may involve some tough relaxing into the chaos, learning not to stress, and responding versus reacting. The main action behind going with the flow is not just laying back, it's taking hold of the consciousness cord that connects us to the Power of Manifestation where we can get guidance. We cannot practice the love of life in isolation or in a vacuum. Every spiritual path and all the mystics have described that each of us in nature is connected to that single Divine River where the wellspring of infinite possibilities flows. 

Within this Infinite Mind, each individual exists. We are not separated from Life, and neither is It separated from us. We are separate entities in It — individualized centers of God Consciousness.  ~Dr. Holmes, The Science of Mind

When we awaken to the Truth, we become open to the impulse & guidance of Spirit, inspired by imagination and wisdom, directed by our values, committed to our core principles, and dedicated to transformation and transcendence - no matter the circumstances. Leo Babauta, in the blog, Zen Habits, says:

No matter how much structure we create in our lives, no matter how many good habits we build, there will always be things that we cannot control — and if we let them, these things can be a huge source of anger, frustration, and stress. 

This conflict or condition has already happened; we can't go back to make it not have happened at least not yet. So what do we do when we step in it when junk shows up in our lives - big or small? I had a kidney stone journey in 2013:

4 days of cramps

4 days of feeling like Sisyphus...invoking powerful names = Jesus, Iron Man ...and phrases I cannot repeat...jumping up and down to rattle the stone around and break it up. I noticed the usual go with the flow idea went out of my mind as quickly as the cursing came out of my mouth. Then I became focused on not resolving the pain but remembering who I was. I had plenty of moments of health worries, possible financial concerns, and just the agonizing pain but it was my consciousness work that brought relief. 

Kamal Ravikant wrote:

Most of our pain, most of our suffering comes

from resistance to what Life is. And when we

resist what life is, we suffer. When you can say

yes to life, surrender to life and say: “Okay, what

should I be now?” That’s where power comes from.

There is a story about a young martial arts student was under the tutelage of a famous master. One day, the master was watching a practice session in the courtyard.

He realized that the presence of the other students was interfering with the young man’s attempts to perfect his technique. The master could sense the young man’s frustration. He went up to the young man and tapped him on his shoulder. “What’s the problem?” he inquired.

“I don’t know,” said the youth with a strained expression. “No matter how much I try, I am unable to execute the moves properly”.

“Before you can master technique, you must understand harmony, my son. Come with me, I will explain,” replied the master.

The teacher and student left the building and walked some distance into the woods until they came upon a stream. The master stood silently on the bank for several moments before he said, “Look at the stream. There are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? Watch it simply flow over and around them and move on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is.”

Whether its COVID or a broken pipe, don’t dig in your heels, push, shove, and struggle until the veins pop out on your head. Stop saying no. Say yes and accept whatever it is.

Now the act of accepting doesn't mean giving permission ...accepting lets us stop thinking we must swim upstream or wish we could go back in time somehow ...accepting turns the dial to tune into and allow the nourishing Flow of the River of Divine Intelligence to carry us over and around the rocks. Here are a few daily practice tips from Bev Janisch:

1. Learn to distinguish between thoughts and feelings that arise from the condition or event – is it

bringing in your small self or your [highest self]?

2. Ask yourself: What is my heart’s desire? What inspired action arising from my soul am I meant to

take today or in this situation?

3. Create a daily habit of communicating with Source through meditation, prayer or “divine chats.”

Going with the Flow is about creating awareness, space, and practices that enable us to tune in to what Divine wisdom is intuiting and then honoring what we hear.

• Commit to participating in the awakening of your spiritual magnificence and personal power

• Commit to catching the spark of Divine ideas

You may be in pain or in fear of a prognosis or consequence, uncomfortable with making some changes in your habits of thought and action. It may be messy, chaotic, sad, or dirty, but as we understand that any yuckiness is the perfect outcome of the flow of the river of life we decided to float upon, we become open to and ready for the ideas, practices, & solutions to incorporate into our boat. Going with the flow doesn't mean you just sit there, hoping to become dislodged. By going with the Flow using your spiritual tools, you will rise up from the hurricane of discomfort. So go ahead and rage and weep for a few minutes, then take a breath and tap into the River of Divine Wisdom and allow your intuition to inform you of your options and find your best practices from a place of “yes” and acceptance. There is beauty in everything around us if we look at it as perfect.

Go with the flow of your life

Go with the flow of your community

Go with the flow of your health

Go with the flow of this time of COVID

Go with the flow of your relationships

It doesn't mean you don't take action. It means you go with the flow on the River of Divine Intelligence and Love to take action with the wisdom of the ages, the power of the mighty Mississippi, the best advice available from the Universe and Its creations.

Affirmative Incantation

I am stepping into the Circle of Love which surrounds me with ever-expanding energy that vibrates at the speed

of the Divine, awakening me to my best self.

In this Circle of Love, I lift up my mind to the highest thoughts and ideas.

In this Circle of Love, I lift up my heart to the highest frequencies of joy, passion, enthusiasm, and purpose.

In this Circle of Love, I honor that which binds us all together in everlasting Unity. I work the Universal Law to

cause and effect my dreams into an experience.

It is beautiful in this Circle.

It is calm in this Circle.

It is powerful in this Circle.

In this Circle of love, I am living Life to Its most abundant, highest, and prosperous; allowing the best of me to flow.

Tax Deductible Love Offerings: PayPal.me/newthoughtsc

or on your Givelify app

Venmo: NewThought-SpiritualCenter

Support us as your AmazonSmile and at iGive.com

Facebook: @newthoughtsc

Twitter: @newthoughtsc

Instagram: @newthoughtsc

Website: https://www.newthoughtsc.org

2021 New Thought Spiritual Center. All rights reserved.

Standing On The Shoulders of Giants

So much of what I teach comes from Ernest Holmes and the books teaching the Science of Mind and Spirit, my teachers in New Thought, and those who have counseled me, been in class with me, or indirectly taught me or inspired me in other ways and from other fields of study. It all adds up and continues my growth and what I can bring to you. It also reminds me that though I may put a spin on something, make it my own, even inspire people with it, I am standing on the shoulder of giants. And even behind that, it is more about my openness to the open-source of all wisdom that comes to me from the Divine Source.

Like software for which the original source code is made freely available, and may be redistributed and modified, the wisdom of the ages and the intuitable creativity and imagination of the Universe is an open-source venue ...for everyone. Even Newton’s “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wasn’t entirely original...

In the 12th century - John of Salisbury, who described himself as Johannes Parvus, was an English author, philosopher, diplomat and bishop of Chartres said, "We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."

I look at my library and I see all these ideas that interested me, were suggested to me or required for me to read, and some I don't remember why I was inspired to have them. Many are stalwarts in our teaching, but all of them created by standing on the shoulders of giants from ancient times to the last couple of centuries, or from each other.

It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.  ~Jean-Luc Godard

An everyday example is found in the book,  Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, where Nassim Taleb describes an evening of a dinner out...

I realized I was going to a place the likes of which have been around for at least 2,500 years, in shoes similar to those worn at least 5,300 yrs ago, to use silverware designed by the Mesopotamians and drinking wine based on a 6K year-old recipe, from glasses invented 2,900 years ago, while eating cheese unchanged through the centuries (in fact, the older the better – right? wine too) while awaiting a dinner prepared with one of our oldest tools - fire, using utensils much like those the Romans developed.

2021 is not a New Year, New You. It is a New Year, NEWER you. As singer/songwriter Peter Allen wrote, “Everything old is new again.”

January's theme, in our year of AWAKENING, was Believe It. What we believe is the ground floor of our awakening. What we believe is the basis with which we experience a fabulous life and a fabulous life is a creative series of connecting the dots of wisdom throughout the ages, ancient to modern to today into our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Here's an example of connecting the dots wisely. It is about creating something you probably have in front of you right now:

1. The first touchscreen was developed by E.A. Johnson for air traffic control almost 50 years earlier than this thing

a. by 1975 other engineers built upon Johnson's work, developed and patented usable models

b. around the same time, the University of Illinois was developing touchscreen terminals for students

c. the first commercial touchscreen computer came out in 1983, soon followed by graphics boards, tablets, watches, and video game consoles

d. Casio released a touchscreen pocket computer in 1987 (20 years before iPhone)

2. Likewise, Kane Kramer (23 yrs old) designed a small portable hand-held touchscreen digital music player called the IXI

a. 1979 invention inspired by the Sony Walkman

b. held only 3.5 minutes of music

c. Kramer pitched it with the potential for immediate delivery, digital inventory, taped live performances, digital storage, and the promotion of new artists and micro-transactions.

Sound familiar? All that got us to the iPhone. Similarly, the technology for a fabulous life is already present and ready to have the dots connected. We can stand on the shoulders of giants right now to make these ideas our own; from Ernest Holmes, the Vedas, James Allen, Meister Eckhart, Wayne Dyer, Florence Scovil Shin, and hundreds of others. Even Shakespeare, drew heavily upon prior works to observe and create from (some may say, plagiarize)

• Hamlet took inspiration from a play based on Gesta Danorum, a twelfth-century work
• Holinshed's Chronicles was a comprehensive history of Britain originally published in 1577 - a source for Macbeth, King Lear, and Cymbeline. 
• Parts of Antony and Cleopatra are copied verbatim from Plutarch’s Life of Mark Anthony. 
• Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet brought us Romeo and Juliet. And that poem came from a 1559 poem by Pierre Boaistuau, who in turn drew from a 1554 story by Matteo Bandello, who in turn was inspired by a 1530 work by Luigi da Porto.

In 2015, John Maxwell wrote a short primer on how to stand on the shoulder of giants. He said:

Stand on the lessons of history.

His example was through Norman Cousins, who wrote, “History is a vast early warning system,” teaching us to learn by mistakes. I say we learn by successes instead.

Stand on the lessons of others.

Throughout my life, starting when I was a very young man, I’ve made it a practice to spend time with people ahead of me on the journey. Observe and ask questions of people you respect, and you’ll gain incredible lessons that you can apply to your own life.

Stand on the lessons of experience.

When you learn from others first, you gain skills in evaluating experience in order to grow. I’ve often said that experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is. Use what you learn from others’ experience to evaluate your own, and you’ll go farther, faster, than you would have otherwise.

With your mentors, ally's, and life itself ... what is your history, your lessons, your experience? What do you believe? Whether you are new to this teaching or have been involved with this philosophy for a while, what are you doing with your beliefs?

The words are nice to hear and read - I know, but the belief and its integration, the awakening and embodying of it is essential to the transforming and transcending or for just having a happy life

You must be willing to incarnate your theology and illuminate the world around you … that devotion will give you the will to follow through on all you are guided to do, say, and become in this life. ~Carolyn Myss, Entering the Castle

We don't have to reinvent the wheel for a prosperous life.
We don't have to hold ourselves back or have misery in our lives to learn and grow.

When it comes to the ideas of:

• Divine Love always within and available
• Using the Law of Cause and Effect to reveal all  good in your life
• The One Mind and Unity of Spirit in all life
• Limitless Power of the Universe is available to us at all times

...our belief in them is proved by our use of these ideas, conscious or unconscious.

Take it all in. Don't lose the wisdom from the ancients because it's old and maybe abused. Don't lose the wisdom of the recent as just the latest fad or what those other people believe

Look at it, smell it, listen to it, touch it. Is it loving? is it constructive? Does it support:

• Divine Love always within and available
• Using the Law of Cause and Effect to reveal all  good in your life
• The One Mind and Unity of Spirit in all life
• Limitless Power of the Universe is available to us at all times

If so, add it in, make it your own, make it work for you.

Awaken your spirit to adventure; hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; soon you will be home in a new rhythm, for your soul senses the world that awaits you.   ~John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Believe it, risk with it, love it, be it. Always remember that behind (and above!) it all is God, the biggest giant with the widest and strongest shoulders. 

As we advance through our year of awakening and continue allowing the evolutionary impulse of Spirit to work through us, let us remember and commit to an upward journey of Divine Unfoldment. Mary Shelley wrote in a preface for Frankenstein: “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

Not the chaos of confusion, disarray, disorder, and mayhem, but the chaos of the cosmos, of the Divine, of the wisdom of the ages - an open-source of information, inspiration, and transformation.

You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you. ~Luke 17:21

Stand on the shoulders of my words and the words my words were inspired from, and the fruits where those were burgeoned and on and on till you get it, believe it, awaken to it; till you see further than ever before …and thrive!

Affirmative Incantation

Today I am lifted up and carried by the gigantic stature of that undeniable, ever-reliable Loving Intelligence that moves through me, with me, as me, and for me.

 I experience It's love like I do gravity, oxygen, magnetism, and electricity – in the result of Its power and presence in all of life.

I believe in It as I see It expressed in the beauty of nature or the eyes of a puppy or my truest love. I believe It as I hear It ringing in the sounds of the cooing of birds, the laughter of children, and the music that stirs me. I believe in It as It is disclosed in my freedoms of choice, words, thoughts, feelings, and actions. 

I believe that I Am to be guided and enlightened today, centered in the love and support of the Highest in me.

PEACE IN OUR HEARTS

Today I want to highlight Dr. King's dedication to nonviolent activism; protesting injustice with a call for peace and unity, oneness, and prosperity for all. Influenced by Yeshua, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Howard Thurman and others, he knew that the power of peace could move what seemed immovable, teach those who seemed unteachable, bring light where there is darkness, and change this nation and the world.

This morning we will be diving into Peace In Our Hearts. We are bigger than any occurrence or condition or any low vibrational frequencies like division, doubt, fear, or stress. We are in a field of infinite possibilities that react to our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.  What energy/vibration are you in?  What energy/vibration do you want to be in? 

Our optimal job is to turn away from the reaction of what is not peaceful and step into intention and creation of what is peaceful. Are you ready to let go of the fear, anger, uncertainty, and step into your clarity, understanding, certainty, love, and peace?

We can be the Light in the darkness by switching on the God switch. This is not some religious thing. It is as simple as:

How do you start your day in mind, body, soul,

thoughts, feelings, spiritual practice, and food?

How do you end your day?

Peace out there starts with peace inside you. Through our unity in the One and our awareness and awakening with our Highest Self, we not only bring peace in our hearts but become an example to others, rising the vibration throughout the world.

Let's start with our bodies. 

Being mindful of our bodies is essential to the expression of our attitudes, perspectives, and perceptions, and thus our beliefs and experiences. 

Are you all collapsed...shoulders slumped, spine contracted? 

Are you lifting up, doing your wonder woman pose, and deep breathwork?

Remember the spiritual practice of the breath is a release, refresh, and a reboot to mind and body. It is the precursor to the song in your heart revealing itself, illuminating your God-Light into your world and beyond.

Language and communication is important, so focus on what you want to expand. Self-talk is powerful. Choose yours wisely ...it's not about what you don't want....it's about what you want! As Carl Jung reminds us, “What you resist, persists.” So do not resist the negative, re-frame it to surrender to the positive. Life does not need to just be about the good vs. bad. It's about what you declare you are going to reveal in your life or the life of our nation.

Plug-In To What Nourishes You

Spiritual Practice, Community
Self Care – mentally and physically
Varying the sensory input - music, reading, etc.
Moving your body - motion creates emotion and emotion creates attitude, perception, and perspective. Is yours on strife and fear or peace, health and prosperity.

There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how [IT] rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules.  ~Gandhi

That ruling power is in you....is you.

INTEGRITY/COURAGE

Dr. King wrote:

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

Courage is the ability to do what is in your heart. 'Courage' comes from the Latin, 'cor,' meaning heart and spirit. We open our heart to trust the inner wisdom. The inner wisdom comes from Spirit, the Universal Intelligence. With integrity to our spiritual practices and courageousness in using the revelations from our spiritual practices, we can stand on the Principle of Love and Law. The unconditional love of the Divine and the Law that provides as we believe. 

BELIEVING

Gandhi asked...

...is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth Truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. ...love. ... the supreme Good. ...[not] merely satisf[ying] the intellect ...[but] rul[ing] the heart and transform[ing] it. ...express[ing] ...in every smallest act.... This can only be done through a definite realization, more real than the five senses can ever produce.

Peace is a possibility right now. 

Believing that is step one. Keep peace in mind everywhere you are. Let us embody what St. Francis declared:

I AM an instrument of Divine peace:

     where there is hatred, I shall sow love;

     where there is injury, pardon;

     where there is doubt, faith;

     where there is despair, hope;

     where there is darkness, light;

     where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Love, I now declare

That I shall not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

     to be understood as to understand,

     to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that I receive,

It is in pardoning that I am pardoned,

And so I forgive all

And allow all hate, fear, anger, disappointment, and victim-hood 

To be released from my heart and die from my experience

As I reveal my eternal life of love, peace, honor, justice, respect, kindness, and grace. 

You probably won't be able to curb every idea that enters your head, but by watching your actions, thoughts, character, and habits, you can always decide if you will make a home for it. 

On January 30th, we begin the 64 day Season for Nonviolence, an educational and grassroots campaign dedicated to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi who believed in the power of truth and possibility — that a person of conscience could awaken others by refusing to go along with existing injustice and by pointing out more just and workable alternatives. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. applied Gandhian principles to the movement for civil rights.

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. ~Nikola Tesla 

 Peace begins within and radiates outwardly. Peace in the land starts with the individual. There is no peace in the nation without peace in each of our hearts. 

Get in the wave. Weep, rage, if you must...but then breathe, and sing. Plug-in, nourish, and give peace a chance...

Affirmative Incantation

Today I begin to use the Power within like I have never done before, to experience the Good that God is.

I know who I am – an individualized force of the creative Intelligence of All. I AM empowered by the Light and Wisdom of The Thing Itself...Spirit, Source, Divine Intelligence. I follow that Truth with the awareness that my thought is creative... thoughts are things. And so I sow the seeds of my joyous life with these words today. I move now as an outlet for the Universe to work with me, for me, by me, and through me, to make my life a living demonstration of Its greatest example.

So here I Am, Universe. Here I speak my Word, Spirit. Here I Am using my mind, heart, soul, brain, and gut to talk to you, declare as you, reveal through you a life being lived fully, with succulence, joy, grace, peace, and courage. I surround myself with love, kindness, wisdom, creativity, and vitality; nurturing my body, mind, and soul with goodness, and laughter.

Today I feed my consciousness with the nutrition of Divine Love and sing out with success!

FROM THE GROUND...UP

 

In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.  ~Gene Roddenberry, visionary & creator of Star Trek

This week I have been thinking about communication -words, intentions, purpose. I also have been thinking about safe harbors, peace of mind, our nation, our democracy, who we are at our most basic, and what that means in the scheme of things.

Some people seem not to get It. By It, I mean the Mother/Father/God Source within us. Their hearts are closed and their mind is blocked. But a block can be broken – the core revealed. If I can communicate that there's a power that is within you, that you are not only a child of the Universe but an individualized expression of the Universal Creation Itself. If I can convince just two of you, inspire just two of you in the whole world, then I have done my job. Because two begets four begets sixteen and so on and so forth, exponentially like a constructive virus.

The effects of the events of the U.S. Capital violent unrest reminded me of Andra Day's song from 2015, RISE UP:

You're broken down and tired

Of living life on a merry go round

And you can't find the fighter

But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out 

And move mountains

When we can't find the fighter in ourselves, the fighter that brings us back and makes us feel safe, whole, with a future, we tend to go negative. Or...

When the silence isn't quiet

And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe

And I know you feel like dying 

When those things happen

...it makes you feel like an alien in your own skin

An alien in your own skin. Allow me to remind you who you are. Let us start from the ground...up. 

The Sacred Books of all peoples declare that God is One, a unity from which nothing can be excluded and to which nothing can be added. All people are expressions of the Divine. All people have a connection/unification with Divine Intelligence / Divine Love. This is the most basic tenet of our teaching...and most others:

One God, One Source, One Father/Mother of All, One Mind, One Life

...that is the basics, the ground floor of belief.

When we have long weeks, when we have trauma, when we have negativity that scares the living perfection out of us, we must feel our feelings, take care of whatever needs to be taken care of in the 3D world about it, and most importantly:  start from the ground...up.

What do I mean by that? Lao Tzu, the purported author of the Tao te Ching wrote:

Those who are highly evolved, maintain an undiscriminating perception. Seeing everything, labeling nothing, they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness. Thus they are supported by it.

Well, we are always supported by the Great Oneness. But how are we using It – communicating it to ourselves and the world? We observe social inequities, racial injustice, and disenfranchisement of people throughout our world, a world that has deeply held beliefs of race superiority, preference, and privilege not consistent with our spiritual and universal principles. So...

What are we to do?

How do we become or teach humanity to live in alignment with spiritual truth?
How do we have a world with less idiotic behavior...less desperation? less fear and chaos?

Some seem not to get it, but that's only because their hearts are closed and their mind is locked. But a lock can be opened. The key is love...the love of our Oneness...that all are created in the likeness of the Creator. It's not philosophy, religion, spirituality, or metaphysics, it's all of them and it's science.

A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.  ~Albert Einstein

Conclusion and Call to Action

From the beginning of Creation, this Unity of Life was set in motion.  It is the play of Life upon Itself; the action of a limitless Imagination upon an infinite Law. Through this Unity, this One Mind, any individual has the ability through the power of belief, through our thoughts and feelings, through our word, through our daily spiritual practice to ground the self in the absolute knowing and practice of Oneness, to manifest through from our GodSelf. And when we must, to remember who each of us is.

And to turn to each other, even if it's one or two of us, and say:

But I see it in you [this fighter spirit] 

so we gonna walk it out

And move mountains

And from the ground...up, we shall...

 Rise up...like the day

rise up...unafraid

[we'll] rise up...

High like the waves

[we'll] ...rise up

In spite of the ache

[we'll] ...rise up...

And … do it a thousand times again

In peace and love of self and others, let us fly like the God's we are into any diversity with the strength of our Oneness, the power of the Universe at our back, the Light of our Word manifesting our best, and the unconditional love of Spirit flowing. Let's take off from the ground...up.

Let's Fly!

Affirmative Incantation

I rise up...awake and wiser. I Am forever One with the loving intelligence that supports my body.

I believe in my power. 

I believe in my deserving of a joyous and happy life. 

Today, I declare my good health and feeling vibrant. Today, I take a stand, solid from the ground up and centered in my Divine nature, to think, feel and be in the best health possible. 

My blood sugar, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body mass, physical activity, and diet improve every moment of every day. My blood is oxygen-rich, my cells round and flexible, my bone density higher, and my organs function optimally.  My brain, nerves and muscles fire up with Divine Intelligence, calm and ease, and strength.

My body shall reflect my belief. And I step boldly and bravely in believing in my great health.

ALWAYS THE WISER

 …you are one with the Creative Genius back of this vast array of ceaseless motion, this original flow of life. You are as much a part of it as the sun, the earth and the air. There is something in you telling you this -- like a voice echoing from some mountain top of inward vision, like a light whose origin no man has seen, like an impulse welling up from an invisible source. ~Ernest Holmes, This Thing Called You

The theme for 2021 is AWAKENING. After working on our perception of how life works, it is time to awaken to these perceptions...solidifying them in all we think, feel, and do.

Each month we will explore the path to our awakening. Themes like:

Loving It
Observing It and Decluttering It
Connecting, Expanding, and Authenticating It

                                                                                              …and much more

January is titled Believe It. Believing the wisdom of The Thing Itself, call It God, the Universe, Spirit, Divine Love, Divine Intelligence, Source...This Thing Called YOU

Our fundamental principles are an ageless amalgamation of many spiritual traditions and mystics that have tapped into the Infinite Eternal Gnosis of Universal Love. We believe in a Divine Intelligence, call It what you will, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause that manifests Itself in and through all creation.

We believe in the incarnation of that Intelligence in everyone and that all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.

We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul, forever and ever expanding, empowered by this loving Intelligence within.  Following these principles is a full body experience. It takes the logical mind, the open heart, a faith, an enlightenment through alignment, a willingness to transform and transcend, and an eager awakening to the Truth of how the Universe works. Ernest Holmes said in his 1959 Sermon by the Sea:

Others will arise who will know more than we do; they won’t be better or worse, they will be different and know more than we do. Evolution is forward. ... [a] most direct impartation of Divine Wisdom that ... incorporates the precepts of Jesus and Emerson and Buddha and all the rest of the wise.

It's not just about attending Sunday celebrations, classes and workshops, or reading about the teaching. It's about showing up for and with yourself; using personal responsibility traits like:

Honor and Purpose

We honor the ancestry of our teaching by acknowledging the alchemy of the universal wisdoms to embody and use them in our lives. We are not talking about some dogmatism or any kind of authority generated from some alleged revelations or special information delivered only to the mystics or metaphysicians...there is no secret product or special dispensation of Providence or wisdom. It is wisdom dispensed and available to all who reach out to receive and honor It; to those who welcome the wise, awaken the intuition, and willingly evolve the mind and heart.

Do you have a special quote or text, a “timeless” wisdom you keep near you at most or all times? If not, I ask you to find one that resonates with you. One that causes you to vibrate at the speed of the Divine and honor this powerful Word by awakening to it and using its gnosis (its knowledge) in revealing the Divinity in you.

Openness Is Our Mission

Grounding, centering, and communing with Mother Earth and the energies of the Cosmos opens us up to the Divine impulses and urges of wisdom that is always calling us inward to the deeper part of ourselves. We prepare ourselves by cultivating the consciousness of humility, letting go of our spiritual arrogance and bloated nothingness out of the path, and perceive beyond our current perspective. And to be open to the “new thing” God is doing in, as, and through us and all beings. In this openness, we bust through, soar and zoom out of the old perceptions and perspectives that held us back and leave it burned in a ceremonial bowl of release and renewal. 

Visioning a Vision to Envision and Live A Great Life

Here's a different take on the caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis and its relation to inner wisdom, transformation and transcending. From Norie Huddle's book, “Butterfly” she writes:

The caterpillar’s new cells are called "imaginal cells". They resonate at a different frequency. They are so totally different from the caterpillar cells that his immune system thinks they are enemies . . . and gobbles them up - Chomp! Gulp! But these new imaginal cells continue to appear. More and more of them! Pretty soon, the caterpillar's immune system cannot destroy them fast enough. More and more of the imaginal cells survive. And then an amazing thing happens! The little, tiny, lonely imaginal cells start to clump together, into friendly little groups. They all resonate together at the same frequency, passing information from one to another. Then, after a while, another amazing thing happens! The clumps of imaginal cells start to cluster together! . . . A long string of clumping and clustering imaginal cells, all resonating at the same frequency, all passing information from one to another there inside the chrysalis.

A wave of Good News travels throughout the system - Lurches and heaves . . . but not yet a butterfly.

Then at some point, the entire long string of imaginal cells suddenly realizes all together that it is Something Different from the caterpillar. Something New! Something Wonderful!! . . . And in that realization is the shout of the birth of the butterfly!

Since the butterfly now "knows" that it is a butterfly, the little tiny imaginal cells no longer have to do all those things individual cells have to do. Now they are part of a multi-celled organism - A FAMILY who can share the work. Each new butterfly cell can take on a different job. There is something for everyone to do. And everyone is important. And each cell begins to do just that very thing it is most drawn to do. And every other cell encourages it to do just that.

Have a conversation with the wisdom you hear, read, and learn. Cultivate this Field of Consciousness into your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and let these wisdoms impress and inform, inspire, and evolve your life. When we know that we know what we know and put it in our lives as a practice, setting our previous ideas aside and becoming aware and conscious of the impress of Universal Spirit and Infinite Possibilities, our access to infinite wisdom and intelligence turns into a readiness for It to flow through us, as us, and with us.

One who comprehends truth is wise, one who loves it - good, one who orders his life in accordance with it - happy. ~John of Salisbury

When I want to learn something, I use the mental powers in my brain-mind. When I want to embody something or heal myself, I use the spiritual and emotional powers in my heart-mind. All are guided by the enteric-mind (the intuitive). The gut is where wisdom enters, the brain is where wisdom computes, and the heart is where wisdom lives and expresses.

The spiral of life is upward. Evolution carries us forward, not backward. Eternal and progressive expansion is its law and there are no breaks in its continuity. It seems to me that our evolution is the result of the unfolding consciousness of that which already is, and need but to be realized to become a fact of everyday life.  ~Ernest Holmes, Words That Heal Today

Let us not use 2020 as a headwind, holding us back. Let us use it as a tailwind, pushing us forward. 

When our purpose is strong and meaningful, 

we will be always the wiser.

 

When we have a mission that is bold and brave, 

we will be always the wiser. 

And when our vision is clear and forward moving, 

we will be ever the wiser.

Affirmative Incantation

Steeped in the wisdom of the ages, I humbly awaken to the inspiration. The greatest ideas of my life are now downloading into me:

When ancient mystics tell me I Am One with the Divine, I believe it.

When the modern mystics lay out the tools and practices to rise up to my best, I believe it.

When the Universe lets me know Its power lies within me ready to be used to manifest health, freedom, love, prosperity, peace, and tranquility, I believe It.

In this new year, I hereby resolve to evolve! I hereby provoke to become woke. I hereby breakthrough into the new.

Roused, revived, enlivened, and energized, I awaken to the wisdom of the ages and shape my world and my experiences with power and grace

NOT A LOOK BACK

Photo by Elia Pellegrinia on Unsplash.com

Our theme for 2020 has been Perception...

What is our impression of life and us in it?

What do we grasp, acknowledge, understand, believe, recognize, and reveal?

Amid the pandemic, the fires, and other conditions, we brought you answers, tools, and more questions in order to upgrade your perception about how your life works. 

This may be the final blog post of 2020, but it is not a look back. I am sure many would like to forget 2020...the lockdown, work, and school on Zoom, toilet paper shortages. If 2020 was a person, I'd sue him for pain and suffering. If 2020 got an Amazon or Yelp review, it would get one star – not recommended. I did get to read a lot of books and, I don't know about you, but I finished all of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ by July.

2020 was much like an episode of Twilight Zone...it made Tiger King seem normal. And for me, sweats were the predominant pant for 2020 – I'm wearing some right now. And social distancing? I never thought “I wouldn’t touch them with a six-foot pole” would become a national policy. Oh, and remember singing “Happy Birthday” -twice- while washing your hands? For a while there, every time I went to the bathroom, kids expected me to walk out with a cake.

This morning I want to review our year of Perception. But not to look back … to move forward

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are. ~Talmud

We started our year learning about perception through the elements ...air, earth, water, fire. The air taught us to have ventilation through revelation:

To clear the air of conditions
And breathe the air of Truth

To keep away the fear, the despair of the news, the climate, or the idiots in government we grounded ourselves to Mother Earth, gaining strength from her profound power. And to live at our fullest, we learned to become the lake; flushing out the negative with overflowing positive by filling our minds and hearts with the best words, the loftiest ideas, the most loving thoughts. All this to give us a base, empowered by Truth to endure, optimize, be smart, be centered, and have vitality, joy, wisdom,and love on high.

All the power and intelligence of the Universe is already within, waiting to be utilized. The Divine Spark must be fanned into a blaze of the living Fire of your own divinity.  ~Ernest Holmes, Creative Mind and Success

We all have heard that seeing is believing, however...

Believing creates the seeing!

  ...and seeing God in everything creates harmony. When we remove the obstructions in our perceptions and our histories, we have a vision of infinite possibilities.

But don't squint to try to focus on that vision...to change, update, upgrade, or transform/transcend. It leads to double vision and a false sense of clarity.

Don't squint -you don't have to- open your eyes wide, the ones in your head and in your heart. Open them to the luminescence of Divine Wisdom and It will reflect in everything you think, feel, and do.

As we perceive through the Divine Feminine in us all, we tap into our foresight and creative wisdom; nurturing the nature of our inherent spiritual perfection, and thus suiting up for constant success. Walt Whitman wrote:

The moment you stand up and claim your divinity,

Christ is reborn within your heart, Buddha rejoices,

Mohammed dances upon the mountaintop,

Lao Tzu winks approvingly

And the Promise of the Tree of Life is Fulfilled.

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,

And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,

And the women my sisters...

Perception and Focus go hand-in-hand. Remember this story?

A small boy was wandering in the woods and saw a monk sitting on a rock. He went up to the monk and asked him to impart a bit of wisdom.

The monk looked at the small boy and said, “My child, be a Lion, not a dog.”

Puzzled, the boy asked, “What does that mean, be a lion, not a dog?”

“When you throw a ball at a dog,” asked the monk, “what does he do?”

“The dog chases the ball,” the boy replied.

“Yes,” said the monk, “but if you threw it at the Lion, it wouldn't care at all about the ball. Its attention would be on you who threw the ball, not on the object....you. Now think about it:  if someone is throwing balls at a lion, what happens next when the lion turns to look?”

“The person throwing the ball better run away before he gets eaten,” the small boy said.

“Correct, my boy. The Lion stays put, focused on you, waiting to grab hold of you.

Confused, the small boy asked the monk, “that's a scary story, teacher, what am I supposed to learn from that other than don't throw a ball at a lion?”

“Like the lion, my friend, always focus on the source.... not the incidents, not the effects....go to the source.”

And that Source is Spirit....our highest self....with Clear and present certainty, we are free to see It and Live It.

Do you perceive yourself as a maverick of intention?

Do you use imagination and faith, knowing the Universe is your ally to end the war on lack or limitation of any kind?

As we perceive life through the roots of our Nature, we commune with the Power of all Life, consecrating ease, and awareness in our thinking. With the seeds of faith as part of our Divine tapestry, unified in the One, we dedicate our mind and heart to just do the God in us. We may pray and meditate with persistence and gusto (which sometimes is hard), but we no longer toil.

Staying in tune with the Divine gives us the tools to carve out what it is we want, desire, require in our lives.

Perception taught us to give credit where credit is due...right here (in the heart-brain) within you. Each of us is the conduit, the sun, the connection. When we soak in the energy of the Universe and Creation with gratitude, commune and be in tune with the Divine, put foundations under our castles in the air, we can wrap up our greatest manifestations with a bow. As satirist Jonathan Swift reminds us:

Real vision is the ability to see the invisible. 

For even when frustrations arise

We can weep, rage, breathe, then sing, and let Divine Love Light the way to laying down our burdens and shadows. I ask you not to forget 2020, but to learn from it. Not to be pissed about it, but to release the anger and forgive it. I ask you to not look back but to look forward.

Some of 2020 events will follow us into 2021, but our perception of those events, how we relate or react to them doesn't have to. Let's take 2021 with advice ala King Henry from Shakespeare's Henry V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

...imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,

...set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;

...breathe and bend up every spirit ...to [Its] full height. 

...show us here...the mettle of your pasture:  let us swear that you are worth your

[Divine] breeding; which I doubt not;

… [and] hath … noble lustre in your eyes.

The game's afoot [the year anew]:

Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,

Cry 'God [is] for me! and All the world

...in peace, vitality, joy, prosperity, and love!'

 

Happy New Year...HAPPY NEW YOU!

Affirmative Incantation

I look forward to this new year. 

I look forward to this prosperous year. 

I step into my wealth and soak up my good health. Vitality, vibrancy, and victory are abundant in my life this year of 2021. It shall be state-of-the-art, cutting-edge, advanced, and unspoiled.

I look forward to a creative year full of loving relationships, peace of mind, and good flowing in of inspiration. I acknowledge my Divinity and Its vibration will show through during all of 2021. 

Happy New Year and Happy New Me.

Leftovers

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

  Listen, listen, listen to my heart's song...I will never forget you, I   will never forsake you...  ~Paramahansa Yogananda

  Deeply embedded in our nature is the knowledge of how to receive. It    is a great and beautiful birthright. And yet, for any number of reasons,    we sometimes do not believe that we can receive good or we believe      that our only value is in giving.

  The Universe is impersonal. It gives alike to all. It is no   respecter of persons. It values each alike. Its nature is to impart,   ours to receive. When we stand in the light, we cast a shadow   across the pathway of our own experience. Emerson advises that   we get our bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine   circuits. ~Ernest Holmes, "The Science of Mind"

 Reality Check:  we’re in an ever-flowing cycle of giving and receiving. It is the literal process of our breath. We receive oxygen at the inhale, “God Is,” and give carbon dioxide, “I Am,” at the exhale; giving other living beings an element of their survival and thriving. In the Law of Circulation - in the flow - God gives to ItSelf (each of us). We live in synchronicity with the world around us and each of us will experience this when we know...

Where I sit is holy; Holy is the ground.

Who I am is holy; Holy are we.

Body, thought, emotion:  Connecting you and me.  ~Shaina Noll

Where do we position ourselves in the ebb and flow of the universe?  in a stance of interconnectivity? in a position to receive good and foster good being received by others?  

We are not bloated nothingness, yet there are aspects of the ego that certainly show up in a “bloated nothingness suit” and can cause us to turn our back towards the warmth that is available to us. We need only pivot ourselves in the direction of that good with our arms wide open, ready to receive the sunlight, moonlight, the intoxicating sound of rain falling, our purpose calling, being swept off our feet with love, compassion, and all the bounty the Universe has to offer.

Who's doing that and how much?

For most of us, it's “sometimes.” Sometimes we’re open to goodness, to receive goodness. Perhaps you live in a space of receptivity every day. If so, congrats on rockin' the joy. But maybe your answer is a resounding, “No.” Your brain screams that the wide arm receptive stance poses too many risks and provokes undesirable feelings. If that is your experience you are not alone. 

Brene Brown discovered that about 15-20% of people live in a full-hearted way where they can easily both give and receive love in the divine synchronistic flow. The findings suggested that what causes the ability to really receive as well as give is whether or not people believe they are lovable at a core truth.

Do we believe we are irrefutably lovable and valuable? That we don’t need any benchmark of success to prove it? 

When we can know our value, we are more in touch with our feelings, both those we label as positive or negative, and that helps us become big-hearted receivers of good and givers of good. Many times we must look in between the spaces:

 

Here we are, and there's a place where I can meet you, in between, and in the spaces in between, the stories that we've made...  Shaina Nol (In Between the Spaces)

What to do with that leftover gratitude?

Gratitude is like those carryover minutes in a mobile or data plan - the leftovers are re-usable. Just like Turkey Day's leftovers. You can make a sandwich of turkey and thankfulness, moistened with gravy and gratitude or a soup of forgiveness, vulnerability, and healing or a casserole of declarations and revelations or even some turkey and affirmation-filled egg rolls, or perhaps wow-is-me waffles topped with cranberry and Divine Intelligence.

What we intentionally welcome into our lives or ingest into our minds has a tremendous impact on how wide our hearts will open and how available we can be to receive the goodness we require from the Universe. We are taught that we should mostly welcome benchmarks of power and strength without much if any, vulnerability and tenderness. Power is worshiped. It projects strength and invulnerability. But isn't vulnerability a courageous thing to embrace? a part of the core of our humanness?

Perhaps being open to this is precisely what makes peace and love and cooperation possible. It is this openness to a vulnerability that allows us to receive and reveal the Divine within us. When we do this, there is much leftover for another day. Brene Brown found in her research:

... people who deeply believed that they were worthy of love and belonging [and] believed this regardless of the circumstances, unlike the majority of us who think: "Okay, I'm worthy of love and belonging a little bit, but I'll be super worthy if I get promoted. Or I'll be super worthy if I lose 20 pounds."  These folks believed that they were lovable and that they had a place in the world, and those beliefs translated into specific choices they made every day. They were aware. They recognized shame, and they knew how to deal with it. They recognized vulnerability, and they were willing to feel it—rather than ignore or numb.

When we can welcome in our own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others we are well on our way to being grateful and cheerful receivers of goodness. Let’s cultivate our tenderness and tune into God’s rhythm.

The ebb and flow of life is just waiting to course through us ...with plenty leftover!           

Affirmative Incantation 

I stand strong with my mind and heart open to the infinite possibilities in front of me. Nothing separates me from the river of prosperity that flows throughout the Universe as I give and receive my time, talent, and treasure. I am always in surplus of the vitality, knowledge, boldness, curiosity, and schedule required to fulfill my life with all the nourishment the mind, body, and spirit requires. 

I am getting me some 'happy.' I am getting me some love. I am getting me some security. I am getting me some adventure and joy on this journey. And I am doing this right now, with many leftovers available for all.

With ease, peace, and gratitude I celebrate today with wild abandon.