STAMP IT CONFIRMED

All month we talked about authenticating IT -  God, the Divine, the Power and Presence Within. It's what we are awakening ourselves to all year.

We started off talking about that there is no secret being kept from any of us about the Universe or how the Law works.  You may not have been taught this philosophy, but the Universe isn't keeping information on how IT works for members only. The secret is there is no secret! There are only tools to be discovered that enhance what you naturally know, even if you don't know that you know. Don't get sucked into the clickbait titles or descriptions claiming a big secret is being revealed for the first time b.s. And don't begin your day, week, month, or year pining on thinking you're starting in a deficit. That is not a good way to set yourself up to learning.

I also reminded you this month to look around, use your senses as proof of the existence and the workings of divine intention, grace, power, and wisdom. We can learn most if not all we need to learn from Mother Nature.

And last week, I asked you to decide which do you prefer, or which do you work your innermost education transformation and transcendence through....nature or nurture? Actually, there was no choosing...it was both

This week I want to stamp this month of Authentication...CONFIRMED. Not only confirming that:

• The Power of Presence of Universal Creative Energy is working within you right now
• The knowledge to succeed and prosper is innate and discover-able through our senses
• We don't have to go to the top of the mountain or the bottom of the sea to discover God and our Godness
• Nurturing our True nature leads us to manifestations of health, wealth, love, and peace. 

This week we confirm our authentic selves. We stamp our passports to self-definition and self-determination. We stamp our decree of being an expression of the divine. And we attest, verify, and certify as Michael Singer said in “The Untethered Soul”:

The prerequisite to true freedom is to decide that you do not want to suffer anymore. You must decide that you want to enjoy your life and that there is no reason for stress, inner pain, or fear.

How often do you show up authentically?

We are to see that Spirit creates all things by the power of Its own word, and that we are spiritual beings. We are to hear that inner voice of Truth, which is ever proclaiming the freedom of all life, the eternal unity of God with [all].  ~Ernest Holmes

No matter your profession, who you love, how you pray, where you live, how much formal education you have, how much money you have, what gender you identify with, how old you are, etc., you weren’t born to fit in....you were born to stand out.

God makes no mistakes - people do. And yet mistakes are a great teaching tool if you let them be. Regardless of what anyone says, your unique gifts have a purpose and individually it's our responsibility to be our authentic selves, to live and express that purpose. That might be annoying or unappetizing to some, but the more we express ourselves authentically, the more we inspire others to do the same, even if they find us annoying

Unconditional love and acceptance for others who are expressing themselves authentically doesn't mean we have to hang out with them, vote for them, or like them. Appreciating one's authenticity and that of others brings spiritual maturity into play and practice, and emotional maturity into life.

As the inner light dawns, it delivers the outer life from bondage. This is in line with the teaching that everything is from within, out. When the soul knows freedom, the law will free the body, and the outer life will express health, happiness and success. All things work for our good. Even that which we call evil is salutary, leading us to the Way, the Truth and the Life. Suffering should teach us a lesson which would cause us to refrain from making more mistakes; it carries a blessing with it when we learn how to garner knowledge from experience.  ~Science of Mind

If you were living a life of freedom, how would your life look?

Don't be depressed about the answer because it seems like a wish unfulfilled. Be encouraged, impassioned, inspired, motivated, and awakened by the answer as the first step to fulfillment. That is your authentic self calling....answer the call - your soul's desire is ringing.

Say this with me right now:

I consciously and confidently live as my authentic self.
Solid in self-respect and joy.
Firm in my respect and kindness to others.
Centered, grounded, and stable in my connection to Nature and Spirit.
And bold and brave in my self-expression.

Don't be what the world wants you to be. Find and be the definition of your authentic self. It's never too late. Look at these two womyn:

Julia Child

...worked in advertising, media, and secret intelligence before stepping into her passionate self and writing her first cookbook when she was 50, launching her career as a celebrity chef.

Martha Stewart

...a full-time model, then a 25-year-old mother before working a five-year stint as a Wall Street stockbroker; then finding her true purpose through her love of gourmet cooking and creative presentation to create the empire, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

How about these two:

...was a figure skater and journalist before entering the fashion industry at age 40 and became one of the world's premier women's designers.

...Anna Mary Robertson Moses began her prolific painting career at 78. In 2006, one of her paintings sold for $1.2 million. Previously, she was a housekeeper and farm laborer.

And finally these two/three people:

Taikichiro Moris...was an academic
who became a real-estate investor
at age 51, which made him
the richest person in the world in
1992, worth $13B.

Tim and Nina Zagat...were corporate
lawyers in their late 30s when they
turned their personal, passionate list
of favorite restaurants in Paris and
New York into a published collection
of restaurant reviews which eventually
became a mark of culinary authority.

     

So what hidden or not so hidden passion is waiting for your authenticity to emerge?

You know I know you know, even if you say you don't....you do. We all get caught up in the box of our degrees, our jobs, what the family expected, what we expected, and even the word “retiree.” So now is the time to commit to showing up -authentically- and choose to live the life we’ve always dreamed of. 

A bonus to all this is that doing so in your life also inspires others to follow. By you being an example of unconditional love & acceptance of a life of Spirit expressing Itself as you, that makes for a better world of unity, peace, love, and joy. And that authenticates the Divine in us all!

Stamp your authentic life confirmed and fly my friends, fly!

Affirmative Incantation

I answer the call from Spirit to awaken to the beauty and power within

With this Divine intention, I have the courage to think only clear, productive, and empowering thoughts, no matter what's going on.

I certify that since I am the master of my thoughts

I am the healer of my body

And the designer of my life.

The Truth confirms my wholeness

The Truth attests to my spiritual perfection

The Truth guarantees my success

And I verify this Truth today.

Ta-ta negativity

Goodbye old stories

Adieu junk thinking

I am my authentic True Divine Self right now!

LOOK AROUND

"I think, therefore I am....Cogito, ergo sum," said René Descartes.

"I AM THAT I AM," spoke the Burning Bush to Moses

Both are authentications of the Divine Presence.

Our thinking, thoughts, consciousness are paramount in manifestation, perception, and our connection to the Universal, but is it the only way to authenticate the Divine?

my mind is

a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and

taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and

chipping with sharp fatal tools

in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of

chrome and execute strides of cobalt

nevertheless i

feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am

becoming something a little different, in fact

myself

Hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet

bellowings.       ~ e. e. cummings, Portraits VII

What do you feel when you see hear, touch, smell, taste something so fantastic your whole life seems to make sense? It brings words to mind you never thought you had, descriptions and adjectives you’ve never used, memories you had long misplaced? There's a book I love called “A Natural History of the Senses” by Diane Ackerman. She is quite the prolific author of two dozen highly-acclaimed works of poetry and nonfiction, many New York Times bestsellers, The Zookeeper's Wife (a 2017 movie starring Jessica Chastain), and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for "One Hundred Names for Love." Ackerman is the epitome of curiosity and imagination. Her thrilling observations urge us to live in the moment and to wake up to nature's everyday miracles and her work is addictive. Today I'm using some of her quotes and readings to authenticate the Divine in all – our June theme.

In a mere ounce of air, there are 1,00 billion trillion gyrating atoms made up of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, each a menagerie of electrons, quarks, and ghostly neutrinos. ... Sometimes we marvel at how “calm” the day is, or how “still” the night. Yet there is no stillness in the sky, or anywhere else where life and matter meet. They are always vibrant and aglow, full of volatile gases, staggering spores, dust, viruses, fungi, and animals, all stirred by a swirling and relentless wind.   ~"Vision" chapter

When you look at the stars, the moon, the expansiveness of the sky / the universe, a flower, a child, your loved one, or a sweet treat, you may stare in amazement of its power and beauty – your emotions soar, yes?You may think, “A higher intelligence must be present!”

Each of us are a unique beholder of creation, an authenticator of a design that is both super natural and metaphysical beyond our present comprehension, even though science and scientific theory attempts to explain it all.

When you look in a mirror, you will see the face of a predator; not to capture or eat other animals though that ability is there as well, but to gather light, pick out important  images, focus on novel sites, and pinpoint them in space and time to follow them, we have the ability to be a walking stereoscopic binocular

What we see are prey, not in order to feed our bellies, but our minds, that's the power of our sense of vision. If that is not from a Divine intelligence, I don't know what is. Helen Keller wrote:

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start and awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening fields far away.

In 2014, researchers in a Science magazine article concluded that the human nose can distinguish at least 1 trillion different odors, way beyond the previous estimate of 10,000. Whether it's your favorite fruit pie or flower, fresh cut grass, sea or mountain air, or the pheromones of your mate; a human nose has around 400 scent receptors. For example, when the smell of coffee wafts through a room, specific receptors in the nose detect molecular components of the odor. That elicits a series of neural responses, translating into inward or outward cry's like “Thank God” or “Where is it?”. Or it engages the action of the salivary glands and creates a GPS-like hunt for its location. Smell brings out both the imaginary and the memorial in the brain. It can act as an informant of a person's profession or hobby, habits or previous locale; and with food – the sense of taste attaches itself. Rev. Kelly Isola, a Unity minister, wrote some tips for increasing your spiritual sense of smell. Here's two:

• When you connect with God's presence, what scents or fragrances come to mind?
• With every deep breath in today, let it be a reminder of being more open and alive, to knowing God as real, authentic, and attentive

If the sense of smell is not from a Divine intelligence, I don't know what is.

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

What happens when you hear Mozart or Miles Davis, Dolly Parton or Dean Martin, Bach or the Beatles (depending on your taste). How about a baby laughing, a light rain at your window, a crackling fire, the sigh of your lover, or the purr of your cat? For me, a Debussy composition delights all of my senses - when I hear them, I feel enlightened, open and ready for expansion and transformation. The sounds of nature, both pleasant and not, are a symphony of proof that Spirit wants to be heard; in all the languages for all Its creation - animal, mineral, vegetable, aviary, reptile, mammal, and plants...yes, even plants.

Using highly expensive and sensitive acoustic sensors, similar to the ones use to detect cracks in bridges, researchers are able to catch the ultrasonic blips and pops of a plant. They may not sing like the one in “Little Shop of Horrors,” but it has been proven that their vibrations are a language to each other and the insects that feed upon them

The Universe's sound, translates closely to the "Aum" chant you may hear at an Ashram or the beginnings of a Yoga class. Though we cannot truly create the sound of the universe by a chanting; we can produce a vibration sympathetic with the electro-magnetic ones of the cosmic hum. Listen to this:

If sound is not from a Divine intelligence, I don't know what is

Touch, by clarifying and adding to the shorthand of the eyes, teaches us that we live in a three-dimensional world.   ~”Touch”

When we touch silk, velvet, grass, or each other, we can miraculously heal hurt, ease pain, save premmie infants, and change the circumstances of health and well-being. Touch informs, touch educates, and touch loves. Touch is not only by skin, but what we do when we pray or commune with the power and presence of the Universe.

If touch is not from a Divine intelligence, I don't know what is.

More from Diane Ackerman:

A creamy blur of succulent blue sound smells like week-old strawberries dropped onto a tin sieve as mother approaches in a halo of color chatter, and a perfume like thick golden butterscotch.

Isn't that beautiful? All of that is a description of Nature saying “hi...” in the synesthesia of life. Only 2 - 4% of people have the neurological condition called synesthesia in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses, but in many ways, all of us are synesthetes.

Sacred rituals use the senses to connect to their very being and essence. The Torah (Exodus 20:18) describes the Hebrews gathering to receive the scrolls with Moses at Mt. Sinai to hear visions and see the voice of God. Dr. William Bushell of MIT's Department of Anthropology and Columbia University's American Institute of Buddhist Studies tells us, "In fact, synesthesia may not only be associated with the highest spiritual states, it may be necessary for them." 

Dr. Eben Alexander wrote in "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife" about the blending of his senses during his near-death experience in a 2008 coma when he wrote, “Seeing and hearing were not separate in this place where I now was ...I could see the surging, joyful perfection of what they sang.” After months of analysis and discussion with other scientists about his experience, Eban Alexander concluded, “It is crucial to remember that my ultra-real experience deep in coma, in the realms of the Gateway and the Core that I describe in my book, did not happen in my brain, or in the physical universe, but they really happened in a more fundamental reality – the dwelling-place of Divine consciousness, spirit and soul.”

What more proof do you need to authenticate the Divine in all and through all? Just use your senses. Stay aware and awake, and allow your senses to inform you, inspire you. All you gotta do is look around

Affirmative Incantation

Today I put in place a guarantee for a great day:

    I promise to be centered and grounded

    And if I slip, I pledge to stop and get grounded and centered once again

I commit to being clear and concise with my intentions

    And I shall use the lifetime warranty from the Universe 

To assure me of my bodily vitality, 

To vouch for my heightened mental and creative abilities, 

And to confirm my absolute willingness to awaken to all inspiration around me.

This pledge deposits gobs of Peace, Power, Beauty, Joy, Love, Light, Life, and Wisdom in my mind and heart,

All I require for a wonderful experience at work, play, and love throughout the day  

I amplify, clarify, and intensify my best self today with this guarantee 

That will fill me, thrill me, and stay with me morning, noon, and night.

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.

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.

Dedicate and Lubricate

To manifest stuff into our lives, we dedicate our thoughts and feelings about our desires into the Universe and then we lubricate the movement of these thoughts and feelings from desire to acquire, by using the energy of faith and belief. This energy is found in the holistic use of the Divine Matrix, the bio-electric mechanics and connection of the brain, heart, and gut.

Thoughts cause biochemical reactions in your brain that release chemical signals which make your body feel a certain way depending on your thoughts, and those feelings cause you to generate more thoughts that produce the same feelings and thus the same bodily reactions. 

      ~Dr. Joe Dispenza

And simultaneously makes the mental equivalent, which is the frequency the Universe reads to bring it into form. The energy centers of the body including the heart and gut come into play; stimulating the endocrine system (a collection of glands that produce hormones to regulate metabolism, sleep, mood, etc.).

This month talking about living a consecrated life. A life which prepares us to lock into the frequency Einstein and Tesla speak about to manifest, by:

1) Communing with nature and the Divine Presence

God is the Source of all that is and is all that is. Everything in the Universe is made of God-stuff, making each of us a unique, individualized expression of It. In this Oneness, this community, we each share our time, talent and treasure.

2) Taking heed to the constant call of the Divine urge

We do so by listening and watching for the subtle Universal cues and using the constructive versus destructive query to determine if it's from the ego, fear, or the higher self. Hint - we want to listen only to those which are constructive and coming from our higher self.

3) You dedicate your most sacred self to living the highest life

...the ultimate goal of life is complete emancipation from all discord of every nature.    ~Ernest Holmes

You can do so by:

                    a) nourishing yourself with healthful food, positive/loving/prosperous ideas, thoughts, and feelings

                    b) taking wise, bold, and optimized strategies of action

c) quieting the chattering mind with thankful attention, questioning push-back, and self-parenting

d) laughing and loving in general

e) clearing the corrosion of the mind & healing the ego-driven thoughts in the mind with meditation

f) activating the flow of Universal Abundance  through affirmative prayer or spiritual mind treatment

g) filling your consciousness with healthy and wise readings or being here 

h) practicing radical forgiveness to all, for all – especially yourself – in other words, “get over it Blanche”

i) getting your butt in nature, getting your toes in the sand, and your bare feet touching Mother Earth

Now you may come back to me with, “But what about all that's going on now or during other times of crisis, stress or trauma; something that turns my world upside down like a cyclone?” Good question!

As human beings, we have free will and can choose how we relate to what we experience, whether it be positive or negative. The same Principle that brings us freedom, prosperity, and joy also allows us to experience bondage, lack, or misery, according to our consciousness. ~Science of Mind

Free will, volition, choice in what we think and do. Makes you want to sing that great old hymn:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me

Remember, this is not about claiming to be a wretched person, but a person with wretched thoughts around wretched conditions making wretched choices and actions.

Even on special occasions, like now, living the high life is essential. We are to never compromise the Divine Principle of life:  the Divine is within and the power of creation is shared by our perspective on life and beliefs in ourselves, no matter the circumstances. As the Tom Waits song says:

That diamond, based on a Buddhist principle, is described by Mila Diamond (she has a diamond in her mind and name):

We all have a seed of diamond mind ... a state of heightened clarity, alertness and complete congruity. When you are in that state, you find yourself in the right place at the right time, with the right people, noticing the right opportunities and finding genius solutions. The right path unfolds before you. You feel empowered. … Like a perfectly cut diamond, it is luminous and strong. 

As co-creators with the Universe, what we deeply believe and what we claim for ourselves and for the world has an impact. An impact on our minds, actions, thoughts, feelings and experiences.

It seems to me that it is only as we view all life, everything from what we call great to what we call small, important or unimportant—it is only as we view the whole thing as “one stupendous whole, whose body nature is with God the soul” that we shall really enter into communion, into sympathetic oneness and rapport, with the reality of all that is about us.                               ~Ernest Holmes 

Every time we face adversity or are enjoying the riches of life, remember your own worth and value. Steel your mind against the onslaught no matter how dire the circumstance and treasure this thing called life by always having a diamond in your mind.

Without inner change there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.  ~angel Kyodo williams, Zen Priest

Conclusion and Call to Action: 

To lubricate the way to revealing our Divinity, vibrating at the speed of the Divine and busting through to soar and zoom into the best time of our lives, no matter the condition; let us have a baptism of words and feelings and take vows of consecration. These promises, and the words and rituals that surround them, speak to a perfect aligning with the Universe. Those who are baptized may still have doubts and those who have taken Buddhist-like vows must still resist suffering. These are not usually "one and done" magic tricks or miracles that once acted on never need to be thought of again; they are meant to be returned to as a way of life. 

Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized you to do it or not. All I am saying is that the world needs you to do this, because there is a real shortage of people willing to kneel wherever they are and recognize the holiness; holding its sometimes bony, often tender, always life-giving hand above their heads. That we are able to bless one another at all is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very stars.  ~Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest, professor, author, theologian, and a 2014 TIME magazine 100 list of most influential people in the world

There is always a glimmer of light available. Fill up your spiritual bank with constant highest-self deposits. When you dedicate your thoughts and feelings to that which you desire and then lubricate the movement of these thoughts and feelings from desire to acquire, by using the energy of faith and belief; when you remember who you are, you always having a diamond in your mind. That makes your mind full of faith, with the highest hardness and thermal-powered manifesting conductivity of any material, with an unsurpassed cutting in of optimized beliefs and the polishing of those beliefs into a beacon of attraction.

You will find yourself living a consecrated, happy, joyous, prosperous, healthy, creative, and loving life...no matter the circumstances!

Affirmative Incantation

I Am part of a community that celebrates diversity in the world, fosters the inclusion of everyone, champions the inner work and journey of anybody, and creates space for brave, vulnerable conversations. Honoring the unique emanation of Divinity that each person embodies, I advocate for human rights and dignity for all.

Understanding that Oneness is not about Sameness or Otherness, I know it is revealed when we love each other well, get into good trouble when we must together, and consecrate this Beloved Community at all times with peace, prosperity and ease. I remain an active learner and a listener so that we can all grow together. I bless all people in their holy journey to bust through, soar and zoom into their greatest life. 

Like all, I am a unique expression of Spirit:  consecrated, educated, dedicated, and oxygenated to create a life the way I want it right here and now!

A Matrix of Divinity

Sometimes it can seem like nothing matters

To how you feel and the way that things are.

Uptight, anxious and a little scattered;

Dreams that once felt near, now seem so far               ~Steve Apperson

Dreams, wishes, hopes, fantasies, desires, revelations, declarations - we all have them. How do we materialize them? bring them into form – the 3D world? It's one of the big questions for us all. We have the spiritual tools, however, do we really believe in them?

Saturday was Tooth Fairy Day. Remember the tooth fairy?

Children cannot tell fantasy from reality until age 7 or 8. That is why they so easily believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  ~Jean Piaget, child psychologist

And psychotherapist/parent coach Patti Ashley would add:

I would say keep the imagination going as long as it lasts!

However, Elaine Rose Glickman, author of “Your Kid’s a Brat and It’s All Your Fault: Nip the Attitude in the Bud - From Toddler to Tween,” thinks parents shouldn’t let their kids believe in the “Tooth Fairy:”

It sets your children up to look like a fool upon realizing they’ve been duped. They’ll feel gullible and stupid. Saying that these gifts are from some pretend creature takes away from your relationship. It teaches your kid not to trust you.

Your child could question if you’re also lying about, say, the importance of vegetables or the existence of God. And if you double down on the lie when she voices uncertainty, you’re also teaching her to doubt her own instincts about what is worthy of her belief and what should be questioned.

It begs the question:

Are Spiritual Mind Treatment, affirmative prayer 

and other practices just an adult Tooth Fairy?

Are we being duped by these ideas of “as if?”

Are these just lies we are telling ourselves while we wait 

for fate to take its hand or the law of averages 

to do its dirty work?

Well, the answer is no. When we embody ourselves in thoughts of pure logic and fact, we separate ourselves from that which prepares the mind and body to receive the good. Our perception and attitudes about life affect our body, mind, spirit, and what shows up in our experiences. Sounds like a very subtle thing, but what's in the subtlety is very powerful and its the lack of appreciating this subtlety that is the foundation of most of our troubles.

Without spiritual practice, whether it's with daily affirmative incantation work, prayer, visioning, gratitude, radical forgiveness, or just being with an open heart in meditation, we are consciously and soon unconsciously separating ourselves and tuning out from our good by tuning out of the Light, the Presence...God (or whatever you want to call It).

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. ~Albert Einstein

Sometimes this frequency needs to build itself up to be equal to that reality you want:

Wire rope begins with a single steel wire that's anywhere from .6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Then several of these small wires are wound together into a strand. The number of wires per strand depends on the job the rope will perform and different applications require different degrees of flexibility and strength. Just as our inclusion of more and different wires strands yields stronger, more versatile/effective wire; so too our inclusion of more and different ideas, images, dreams, feelings, envisions and visioning work creates expanded, stronger, and more effective manifestations. 

Focusing on what we want to reveal in our lives, what we shall declare from the Universe, and how we open ourselves up to be aware and embody Its inspirations is part of the Divine Tapestry of creation. A tapestry is made by weaving the horizontal threads over and under the vertical threads, then squishing those horizontal threads down so they are very close together, thus completely hiding the vertical threads from view. The vertical threads are like the heart-centered work we do, the communion with Divine Intelligence...that which is rarely seen or, many times, even heard about.

Choose to love every facet of yourself unconditionally. You are a complex, multidimensional being and loving yourself requires identifying, accepting and loving all of our seemingly separate parts. This includes your personal self, broader self (other people), balance of the physical world (nature, activities, concepts…) and the collective Universe/God. ~Russell Anthony Gibbs, “The Principle of Oneness”

Spiritually speaking, we are all part of one big energetic organism - a tapestry if you will, expressing and experiencing itself, in the seen and the unseen; an intricate matrix of varying vibrations, the lower ones easier to see in form and the higher (most powerful) ones remaining mostly unseen. All energy is commingled like water in the ocean; impossible to determine where one drop begins or ends because there is no true separation of our individualized expressions of this singularity energy and the One Mind. Ralph Waldo Trine wrote in “In Tune with the Infinite:”

Anyone – a fool or an idiot – can be exclusive.  It comes easy.  It takes and it signifies a large nature to be universal, to be inclusive.  Only the man or the woman of a small, personal, self-centered, self-seeking nature is exclusive.  The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-centered nature never is.  

Conclusion and Call to Action

Ask yourself...

Are you doing without being?

Excluding the spiritual for the logical?

You may accomplish a lot of things in the logical, but are you moving forward? are you fulfilled? I have found I am not....doing, doing and accomplishing, but not Being...not inclusive of Spirit...makes me feel un-whole, unaccomplished. Oh, I get things done and it is fun, from passionate and compassionate intent, goals are met and such, but something is always missing without at least dipping my toes mindfully into the Matrix of Divinity.

The Divine Matrix, your mind, heart and gut, and the energy centers of the body (chakras, if you like), which are circuit boards with their own hormones, frequencies, and brain-like functions are meant to work together as a team:

Idea (brain)

Feeling (heart)

Openness to Source (gut)

All are aligned along the energy centers of the body creating the frequency Einstein was talking about.

When we stay connected to them all, we Be, not just do; we easily weave the tapestry and wire the steel rope of our lives with a powerful energy that intentionally connects to where the Universe listens and takes Its instruction from, and that which speaks to us through inspiration and intuition from that Universal tapestry.

I began with a question:

Dreams, wishes, hopes, fantasies, desires, revelations, declarations - we all have them, but how do we materialize them? bring them into form – into the 3D world?

By opening our hearts to receiving and allowing, even inviting the Divine Intelligence in, as well as opening our mouths and mind to express our declarations to It, we set a powerful energy in motion.

Say it to claim it

Feel it to be it

And be open to receive it, to see it

Allow the Universe to inform you how to be more than a doer....and be the Be-er of life.

If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions. …. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. 

Be like Albert Einstein, spend less of your time doing, and add more of your time being. Open your Divine Feminine aspects and put your order in to have the Universe provide the who and what of your desires - it will let the doing count more!

Affirmative Incantation

I embrace the entire community of Creation, expressing Its Divinity on Earth. Stocked with a myriad of infinite opportunities, I give my full attention to the beauty and wisdom of life, gratefully standing with calm and ease no matter what faces me. 

I know I will be informed with the perfect explanations and clarifications. 

I know I will be inspired to express the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that lead me to the best results. And I know I am taking the best direction, moving down the best path, and operating through an optimized course of decision and action. 

The source and substance of my supply, whether in my money, knowledge, healing, or love, lies in the Power and Presence that I commune with right now with joyous consecration. I claim my clarity and understanding and nothing will divert me from this community of appreciation, devotion, and peace. 

With this Divine Wisdom flowing through my entire energized body temple, I live an opulent life....a luscious life....a life that is blessed.

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

 In the far reaches of an infinite cosmos, there’s a galaxy that looks just like the Milky Way, with a solar system that’s the spitting image of ours, with a planet that’s a dead ringer for earth, with a house that’s indistinguishable from yours, inhabited by someone who looks just like you, who is right now reading this very book and imagining you, in a distant galaxy, just reaching the end of this sentence. And there’s not just one such copy. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many. In some, your doppelgänger is now reading this sentence, along with you. In others, he or she has skipped ahead, or feels in need of a snack and has put the book down. In others still, he or she has, well, a less than felicitous disposition and is someone you’d rather not meet in a dark alley.   ~Brian Greene, "The Hidden Reality"

Explosive idea, eh? Makes my head spin. That's some coloring outside the lines of imagination. However, this is where science is taking us.

When we were very young, usually before 1st grade, we all colored outside the lines; it's a part of childhood development - the scribbling. Then seemingly overnight, the master of scribbling hands the parent a piece of artwork that shows she’s tried to color inside the lines. It’s a big moment when one will do the proud parent dance as they tape the picture to the fridge.

That switch in coloring skills is a milestone for children because it shows that their motor skills and cognitive skills are developing.  ~Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assoc prof of psychology, Fordham University

And Denise Bodman, Ph.D., a principal lecturer at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social & Family Dynamics of Arizona State University tell us:

As children become aware of boundaries, they start thinking and planning around them. Soon, she may color with an understanding of spatial vocabulary such as “above,” “below,” and “between.” When children start coloring inside the lines, they’re learning about cause and effect.

Coloring within the lines is tapping into self-control and confidence with a level of focus and concentration that helps us master many other tasks, fostering confidence.

All that is great in the development of a child or as a newbie to a skill, industry, practice, or purpose. Staying within the lines, following a systematic regimen and order has its value, of course, but it shouldn't be the only message a person gets. It's time to allow thinking beyond the boundaries – without the restraints. To think creatively, behave in an unconventional manner, and to not follow the rules.

Don't get me wrong, you can create some imaginative things within the lines. However, expanding beyond them is like exploring the multi-verse of your mind. Where would computers / the internet be without non-linear thinkers:

• Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, an 1800's English mathematician, worked on the Analytical Engine, and considered a computer programmer, even before computers were a thing
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple
• Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn – fathers of the internet

Imagine science without...

• Einstein, Newton, Nikola Tesla, Galileo
• Marie Curie and her work with radium
• Rosalind Franklin's work in describing and assisting the discovery of  DNA’s double-helix structure

Where would philosophy be without...

• Plato and Aristotle
• Conscious, the Buddha and Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
• John Locke, who inspired our Founding Fathers with the ideas of a social contract
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ernest Holmes

Where would entertainment and literature be without “outside of the lines color-ers” like...

• Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph of Netflix
• Walt Disney and Stan Lee
• Marlon Brando, Uta Hagen, or Stanislavsky in the acting field
• Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe (who many consider the first sci-fi author) or Shakespeare

How about innovations in the painting world without

• Picasso's "Guernica" in 1937
• Manet or Monet or Van Gogh
• Jackson Pollacks "Blue Holes Number 11" in 1952
• DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" in 1503
• Salvador Dali, Warhol, Klimt, Vermeer, Kahlo

Innovations in music without...

• Bach's harmonics
• Debussy's creation of mood and imagery
• Gershwin's pop music mix of orchestral and jazz
• Hildegard Von Bingen, Beethoven, the Beatles

Or the working space culture of Google and Zappos; their employee perks of free food, complementary wellness services, basketball courts, bring your dog to work, and other things changed the idea of creativity and work.

What did they all see outside the lines? Opportunities, innovation, change, the infinite... and love!!!!

Here's a "think outside the box question" some of you might have gotten at a job interview:

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily.

You pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for a bus:

The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

An old friend who once saved your life.

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.

You have only one seat in your car. Which one would you choose to offer a ride to?

Do you pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first?

Or do you take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back?

However, if you do all that, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

Think about it. It's a moral and ethical dilemma, but a decision must be made. Save a life? make a repayment for your saved life? or get that perfect partner?

The usual clever, imaginative, thinking out of the box answer is:

I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital.

And I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.

There's no best answer...you could use your cell phone to call for help. But, it's designed to make you think, and that's what all this is about - what you think and how you think it.

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. ~Arthur C. Clarke

It's the what if? Envisioning...strengthens the mind, strengthens the intention, and strengthens our relation to any condition as one that will be overcome, changed, adapted, or healed.

Dr. Joe Dispenza reminds us that the brain doesn't know the difference between a real-life event and imagining it, so keeping it up will prepare the perception nodule, like a software program in the hardware - brain. 

You are the programmer, the language is your imagination, thoughts, and feelings, and practice and commitment change your relation to conditions. It's an energy that colors you outside the lines of all that stuff that gets in our way.

Our whole endeavor is to personalize the impersonal, that is, to individualize the Creative Spirit. While we cannot think of God as an infinite person, that is, as a being with any limitation whatsoever, we should think of the Creative Spirit as that Infinite Being in whom all personality is rooted. Thus, each is continuously individualizing God, and thus, also, each is individually using the Law of Cause and Effect. ~Ernest Holmes, "Lessons in Spiritual Mind Healing"

Following the steps or those "twice a day" suggestions are good, but eventually, you must make it your own in order for it to take hold in your subconscious and belief system.

You may cry our, “I'm not clever or imaginative or creative or..." But I would say back to you, "uh-uh, that's a bunch of bull, we all are!"

I am not asking you to change the world, just change the time, place, length, frequency, words in your spiritual practice. Play and find out what works best for you to reveal the Divinity in You, so you can 
vibrate at the speed of the Divine, and bust through, soar and zoom to your best experiences.

Alan Kay (the husband of author Bonnie MacBird) famously said “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Color outside the lines of logic, religion, spirituality, this philosophy, what you've learned about spiritual practice....everything, and make your Universe a multi-verse of possibilities; making the seemingly impossible possible!

Affirmative Incantation
I see wonderfully colorful and mystical variances being uniquely expressed in each of us. And I am no exception. In Nature's great creative diversity, I am a bold, brave, loving, successful and productive example. I am seen, respected and heard by all. I take myself in my very capable hands to share my time, talent and treasures with the world. My intuition guides me to wise, wondrous and mystical ways and I play with an inventive, vibrant and enlightened palate. Whatever happens, I know I can handle it with grace and ease.

Mother Father ME

In the movie version of Godspell, Stephen Schwartz added the song, “Beautiful City.” In subsequent stage productions, the song, with re-written lyrics, has been placed in various spots in the second act. One version had the character of Jesus singing it during the Last Supper telling his disciples and the world to have hope and faith, and to carry the message of love, peace and personal responsibility to all.  It begins:

Out of the ruins and rubble,

Out of the smoke,

Out of our night of struggle

Can we see a ray of hope,

One pale thin ray reaching for the day?

So many of us are feeling that way witnessing these conditions of injustice, misogyny, hate, disrespect, disease, unemployment and fear. So we have to ask ourselves:

Out of the ruins and rubble,

Out of the smoke,

Out of our night of struggle

Can we see a ray of hope,

One pale thin ray reaching for the day?

How do you answer that question?

I read a post by "Clark A" on MusicalSchwartz.com. He described how this song inspired him and some friends:

We were a Combat Support Hospital unit ... car[ing] for the wounded soldiers and Marines … from [t]he Syrian border in the west to the Iranian border [in the] east...

     I lived in a dorm-like building on the hospital campus and had become friends with a few soldiers from the other unit who liked to go up to the roof  ... and hang out a few evenings a week ... to chill out a bit ...  The rule was that everyone brought a few tunes to contribute, things we really enjoyed … The more obscure the better.  Our perch had a great view of southeastern Baghdad, which is actually a very pretty part of town (if you can look past the destruction), overlooking the helicopter landing pad to the west and the Tigris River to the east. … We took mortar and rocket fire out of there daily, often at night ... providing us with spectacular fireworks displays and a bit of excitement once in a while. 

     ...it was a gorgeous mid-May evening, about 80 degrees and balmy, with a warm, gentle breeze out of the west and a million stars above us...  It was my turn to DJ, and I had just downloaded a long-missed treasure off the internet that I was eager to share with the crew.  We topped off our drinks, sat back to watch a helicopter full of wounded soldiers departing for Germany ... [as] a flaming orange sun settle[d] into the horizon … the sky turn[ing] a million shades of purple and blue.  It had been busy that day patient-wise, and we were all a little frayed around the edges and needing some mental healing.

     I queued up "Beautiful City" for them...

     War does funny things to people immersed in it.  Sometimes it makes you bitter or cynical or angry.  Sometimes things that would normally make you smile, don't.  Things that you'd never worry about fill you with blinding rage.  Suffering that would make a statue cry don't phase you.  And sometimes, a sweet, silly song from a 30 year old musical makes you smile. 

     I'm sure … none of you imagined that four scared and homesick soldiers caught up in the madness of a war in the desert would ever listen to it and feel better, if only for a few minutes, but it happened.  We all saw the city we were in, an ancient and yet modern city struggling to rebuild itself after the onslaught of the American war machine and decades of abuse and terror under Saddam Hussein, in a different way that evening.  We saw past the crumbled buildings, shell craters, and broken windows... and saw a beautiful city that we'd had all around us for so long but had never noticed before.  The white stucco walls, the orchids and roses and other dazzling flowers that nobody knew the names of, the tree-lined boulevards, the shadowed fronds of the date palms.  It was shocking how a song none of them had ever heard before had lifted a curtain from before their eyes, revealing a side of their existence that had been hidden. 

     After the song ended I sat quietly, waiting for their response. Normally we were a pretty talkative bunch, telling stories that corresponded with our song choices ... but ...we sat silently, each looking into the distance, lost in thought, for a moment or two.  It was a moment I'll never forget, nor will they.  It was interrupted by a rocket that sailed right over our heads and forced us to flee the rooftop, but that was ok too.  We'd gotten our break, and that was all we could ask for.

 

Out of the ruins and rubble,

Out of the smoke,

Out of our night of struggle

Can we see a ray of hope,

One pale thin ray reaching for the day?

Yes, we can....we must!

It was Parent's Day not too long ago. For all you parents that worked hard with love and patience, time, treasure and talent to support your children; not with just a roof over their heads and nourishing food in their bellies, but with words of wisdom and encouragement, ethics and justice - I send blessings and gratitude! What makes a good parent? The United Nations described parenting on the 2012 Global Parents Day as a “selfless commitment to children and a lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship.”

Today is a good day to communicate with a parent. Tell them you love them, appreciate them; thank them for the good and forgive them for the bad (not to condone the bad, btw). 

For many of us, our best parent now is ourselves...our best selves, our Divine selves. It is with that inward parent that we now have that conversation where we build a beautiful city within us, in our mind and heart, and thus outside of us.

Helpful Self-Parenting Tips from Linda Esposito LCSW writing in Psychology Today:

• Fall in love with boundaries. Define what is OK and what is not OK. Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did about the misogyny she has faced.
• Take care of yourself. You are what you eat, think and believe. Stress takes a physical toll, so be mindful of what you put in your body, your heart and your mind.
• Practice mindfulness to help you stay in the here and now … Work your calm plan and your relaxation routine each and every day. ... Learn to self-soothe. Practice deep breathing, relaxation, positive visualization, and thought awareness .... Your central nervous system will thank you. Yes, my friends, so much comes back to having a full-fledged deep spiritual practice
• Allow yourself to experience vulnerability, dependency and other emotional states. A common tendency is to reject help from others. While self-reliance may have helped you get through childhood, being overly independent is not a healthy coping skill in adulthood. Humans are wired to connect and isolation and rebuffing others won’t help you recover emotionally.
• Keep the adult tantrums to a minimum by observing your behaviors and how they influence negative interactions. We all project our crap onto others. It takes reflection and self-awareness to analyze how thoughts, feelings and unresolved issues play out.
• Never underestimate the healing powers of a good night's rest, a daytime nap, yoga, lots of water, healthy eats and quality chocolate.
• Try and see the world as an inherently safe place where most people possess goodwill. This will help you trust in the order and structure of life, and to trust yourself. A most critical adult skill indeed … having faith in your ability to overcome problems means seeing yourself as a capable, active participant in life, worthy of success, happiness and love.

Even if your actual parents probably never taught you how to do this ...

Back to the song:

We may not reach the ending,

But we can start.

Slowly but surely mending,

Brick by brick,

Heart by heart,

Now, maybe now,

We start learning how.

Whether it's parenting yourself, your children, your community or the world; we can build a beautiful city of Divine Love, grace, peace and justice. Throughout its various incarnations, the fundamental theme of "Beautiful City" has remained intact:  all of us as a society has within its power the ability to build a truly "civilized," kind and respectful community. It begins by making a personal choice.

When your trust is all but shattered,

When your faith is all but killed,

You can give up bitter and battered,

You can slowly start to build!

We can build a beautiful city,

Yes, we can ….

Not a city of angels,

...we can finally build a city of man.

...where all living things contribute in integrity, love, peace, respect and kindness

Here's something I've said before, reiterated by Tony Robbins:

Love what is. Whatever life delivers, find a way to love it....even the unlovable...and your life will be magnificent. [You don't have to like and it may well be impossible to like it and seemingly impossible to love it, but do it anyway.]  If you can find grace in your worst experience, then maybe your worst experience has become your best. [A lesson perhaps or a miracle of redemption from which you can draw strength; something that betters your life.]  There's no question we are all going to experience injustice [of some kind and to too many, it might happen too often]. The only question is what will you do with it. Will you become the victim or the victor? The way you become the victor is you overcome it. You don't justify it, you don't support it, but you know, if you have 100% responsibility ...[not for the event, but] ...for what you're going to do with it [then you take that bull by the horns and lead it to where you become victorious].  Everything in our life is a blessing [or a lesson]; even the unconscionable, even the unjust, even the unimaginable. … Put the oxygen mask on yourself ... [continue to live, to create, to express the Divine in you; don't let anyone or anything stop you or slow you down –not the past, your age, your education, your situation of any kind– continue to tell your story through Divine love and tenacity. Vibrate at the speed of the Divine] … so you can truly give back to those [you] love [as well as the country and the planet we all love].

Parent yourself well. Remember to speak these words of Truth to Power, our affirmative incantation for the week:

Free at last, free at last; thank God in me, the almighty Divine Love, I am free at last to embody peace, prosperity, health, love, joy, and happiness.

I do so in the fullness of Spirit and with gratitude in my heart.

I am free to see It my way:  independent, bold, brave, loving, opulent, succulent; full of laughter, grace and unlimited choices.

My life is full of fantastic opportunities.

Here is the beautiful video of "Beautiful City" that I watched to produce this blog:

Peace and blessings to you all!