The “season” has come and gone, leaving the sweet taste of eightened
consciousness in its wake. Thanksgiving showcased our communal feeling of
gratitude, not only for the national holiday that it is, but also, most importantly,
for the understanding that it has become a practice that is year-round and all-
inclusive. The spiritual gratitude practice begins with thankfulness for the small
day-to-day things that can easily be taken for granted when we are not living in
the “now” moment, and grows proportionately with the scope and magnitude of
the blessings bestowed upon us.
The excitement and emotion of Christmas lived up to its perennial promise, filling
hearts with a kindness and tenderness that is sometimes less visible in other
months. In a time and atmosphere of social and political upheaval we have been
charged with allowing the Christ Consciousness to fill us completely, driving and
informing our thoughts, words, and actions for the betterment of all. It is the
awareness of the indwelling Christ that allows us to rise above the din, and realize
our interconnectedness, our oneness, our eternal and infinite same-ness that has
been established by God since before the beginning.
And now, we begin a new year! A year that carries all the promise of the Divine
Mind. Ours to design, build, and co-create with the Divine Hand. Now is the time
to remember that “now” is when we create our future – one thought, one
intention, one realization at a time. Let’s remain steeped in our spiritual practice,
alive in Consciousness, and in love with all of God’s creation, and let’s develop
from the infinite field of possibility the best this new year has to offer. The gift is
given. Let us be open to receive.
Fall, 2021 Newsletter
Here we are, six weeks into Autumn. The plants and trees that we have here in Southern California that change colors are doing so, beautifully, and in other parts of the country there is a wonderland of Fall colors decorating the landscape. Our lives, also, are becoming more colorful thanks to the seeming slowing of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This time of year is host to a bounty of holiday celebrations around the world. Here in America, the major holidays begin with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and New Year. Although Christmas and New Year are officially in Winter, when we talk about “this time of year” we lump these four celebrations together within the same period.
Halloween is when we get to see children (and some of the parents) dressed in fun costumes and gaily going from door to door collecting their treats, smiling and laughing, and bringing the joy of the event to us. It is heartening to see this train of Divine expressions living in the moment and sharing their joy with us.
Thanksgiving, in addition to bringing joy, fun, and decorations, brings with it that feeling of gratitude for which it is named. Families gather to enjoy a feast, spend time together, and give thanks for the many blessings of the year.
Christmas brings us a heightened awareness of the Christ Consciousness that is the basis of all creation, and the expression of which is the sole purpose of all life. Although this awareness, lately, is often buried under a mountain of consumerism, materialism, and rote gift-giving I would like to think that the message of Christmas still shines through.
New Year’s resolutions, in their purest form, are the promises for positive change that we make to ourselves in order to become better people in the coming year. This is a ritual of hope for the new calendar year, with a wish that life will get better for us.
I really enjoy these holidays and I know that many others enjoy them, also. This is truly a great time of year! The best thing, though, is that we do not have to leave behind the joy, gratitude, happiness, and spiritual fulfillment that we experience during this period. Let’s not allow these things to diminish! Let’s carry them in our hearts and minds throughout the year. These qualities are God’s gifts to us. To laugh, to love, and to be grateful for every moment, year-round, is our gift to God. What greater gift exchange could there be?
Happy holidays!
Are We There, Yet?
Many of us have heard, from the rear seats of the family vehicle, this query, “Are we there yet?” Followed, often, by the equally unhappy question, “How much longer…?”
These, and questions like them, are not so much for the purpose of information-gathering as they are for verbalizing frustration about the seemingly unending trip, and about the forced confinement to the limited space in the back seat. And not only is the space limited but it must be shared with the same very few others for the whole trip. Did I mention boring?
When we are accustomed to having the whole house to move around in, and the whole neighborhood, town, county, etcetera, to explore, the feeling of being “stuck” in the back seat is not a good feeling at all. We are used to having many different people to engage with socially, professionally, and in other ways. Now, having only immediate family available, in a confined space, for an extended length of time can become frustrating.
We love those we are confined with, of course! But still, it’s nice to be able to spend time with all our other friends, and extended families, and the many people we are used to encountering in the course of our regular days, weeks, months. And to be able to do what we want, when we want, where we want.
We have been on the “road trip” of the Corona Virus for a year and a quarter, now! It has been confining! We have been very limited in what we can do, where we can go, who we can be with. It is frustrating! Still, for whatever reason, it has been ours to do. And now we seem to be making headway in the battle to overcome this and expand into the new reality ahead.
This is a time for optimism. It is a time for renewed hope. It is a time for gratitude for the many blessings we’ve had during the trials and tribulations of the pandemic – and for the lessons we have learned. It is a time to remain grounded in the same spiritual practices and principles that have enabled us to navigate these recent troubled waters all along.
Love, empathy, understanding, forgiveness, and acceptance go hand-in-hand with the optimism, hope, and gratitude. Also key to remaining steeped in our spiritual practice is to remain “open at the top” as we say. This includes honoring the paths of others that may differ from our own, remembering that the faiths and beliefs of others are as valid as ours. Compassion and coming from the Christ Consciousness in our dealings and relationships will win the day. As always!
This too (pandemic) shall pass. We are getting close. There is a rebirth taking place and we can flourish in it. We just need to remember that we are divine beings having this human experience, and it is the divine within us that will overcome all seeming obstacles, difficulties, and differences. Let your divine light shine! Let it light the way for yourself and others.
We have come a long way, and it has been a difficult journey. The answer to “Are we there yet?” is “No, not quite.” The answer to “How much longer” is “We’re getting closer every minute.” The answer to the unasked question “How do we proceed in order to emerge from this in the best possible fashion?” is still “Maintain your best spiritual practices.”
Amen. Amin. Aum. And so it is.
As the Seasons Change
The “Holiday Season” is upon us again! It is a holiday season unlike any we have experienced. As this year of the Covid-19 pandemic comes to a close, it would be easy to turn away from our spiritual practices and fall prey to the fear and confusion of panic, judgment, and blame that is widespread throughout our nation. It would be easy to fall victim to the political divisiveness, the hurtful rhetoric, and the biased, inflammatory headlines coming at us from EVERY direction. It would be easy to become casualties of worldly conditions, succumbing to false appearances. It would be easy to lose sight of our true Reality. It would be easy to question God!
It would be easy – and it would be very unsatisfying and counter-productive! Turning away from God and spiritual practice is what occasioned the race-consciousness to devolve into the current situation. Allowing our group-think to be swayed by the delusion of separation, otherness, and inequality, and to allow the illusion of there being more than one race of people can cause us to forget, “There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is perfect…” as Ernest Holmes, the founder of Science of Mind said. So, let’s not do what’s easy – let’s do what’s effective.
What’s effective is simple. It is definitely not easy! But it is simple. We have to bring our awareness back to the one Reality – that God is all there is. The entire manifest universe is the body of God. Not some of it; not part of it; not most of it; ALL of it. God has become all of us. Again, not some of us, not a few of us, not only those who think like we do; ALL of us.
We humans have volition, choice, free will. We are at choice every moment, and what we choose matters. We can choose to live in fear or we can choose to come from love. We can choose judgment, blame, criticism, and hate, or we can choose gratitude, forgiveness, unity, and understanding. Look around! We’ve seen what negative attitudes and actions do. Yet, we KNOW what love and respect can accomplish. The choice is simple, but so many, today, appear to be struggling with commitment to their spiritual practices.
We are made in the spiritual image and likeness of God. We are the peace that God is; we are the love that God is; we are the light that God is. We came into being with all of God’s qualities inherent within us. Through no fault of our own many of those qualities have become clouded and obscured by the conditioning of the world. That happened. It is the human condition that circumstances, events, and situations impact us, sometimes negatively, and cause us to react, sometimes negatively. The value and importance of having a regular spiritual practice is that we have the ability to recognize when our reactions come from fear rather than love, and we then have an opportunity to respond more graciously.
When we are in our “right” spiritual mind we remember that we are all manifestations of the one God, and we recognize and accept that all others are our divine equals and should be treated as such. Bringing our awareness back to this spiritual Truth, we are then able to address any situation with love and clarity.
God created each of us to express differently. We were not created differently in terms of any one of us being more or less of God, but we are diverse in thought, and consequently in experience. This is as it should be! We were never intended to think, act, and feel alike about life in the world. But we were intended to respond to life in the world in such a manner as to expand and advance our own consciousness and the race-consciousness in an ongoing effort to achieve the highest and best good for ALL.
That is what our divine nature directs us to do. That is what the God within each of us directs us to do. Remembering that the Innermost God and the Highest God is the same God, it is clear that God’s will is for us to think and act from, and with, those high qualities and attributes that we were endowed with at the moment of creation.
Those qualities include acceptance, understanding, kindness, compassion, joy, beauty, gratitude, and forgiveness. We were born with caring hearts and open minds, and born with absolutely no thoughts of separation, other-than, or inequality. Right now – as much as any other time in history – we need to return to those sacred roots!
We need to BE the change we want to see, as Gandhi said. We want to live in peace; we want to be happy; we want love and joy in our lives. We are the ones who create our conditions, by our choices. We cannot change anyone else! We can each only change ourself. And change ourselves we must, if, after deep and honest introspection – going within – we find that ANY of our thoughts and actions are not grounded in love and peace, we need to admit to ourselves that we can and should do better. And then we must change our thinking!
The master teacher Jesus gave only two commandments: love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul; and love your brother as you love yourself. Remember, I said it was simple, not easy!
The world population is never going to agree on issues, but we can, and should, and someday will, agree to treat each other with love and respect, even while disagreeing. We will disagree, and then compromise. Then we’ll disagree some more, and compromise some more. And repeat, ad infinitum. In this way we will be able to navigate this world peacefully, eventually coming to terms with our differences in a manner that works for everyone.
This year the seasons will change in two very different ways. The first will be the regular annual change from-summer-to-fall. The leaves will turn color and fall from the trees, the temperature will cool, the wildlife will begin preparing for winter. The second change will be how this Fall, in the midst of the pandemic, will change dramatically from previous Falls.
We may not have the usual large gatherings, get-togethers, and parties. We will not have all group activities that are typically held this time of year. Many of us will not be able to spend time together with friends and family. It will be a different season on many levels. But the spiritual reasons for the observance of this season’s holidays are as true now as they have ever been.
Thanksgiving is still a time for gratitude. I hope for everyone to transcend the fear-based issues and bring awareness to the many, many things we have to be grateful for. Christmas is still the story of love, hope and faith. The New Year’s celebration is still about moving forward, changing those things in our lives that need changing, and leaving behind the things that no longer serve us.
This is still a great season to remember our spiritual practices, revisit and rejuvenate them, and expand our spiritual awareness. It is a great season to move forward in love, in peace, in brotherhood. It is a great season to birth a new world reality. It’s our opportunity to rise above the trials and tribulations of a lower consciousness. It’s our time to choose Spirit, and its Higher Consciousness!
And so it is. Amen. Amin. Om.
A Very Unusual Spring
This will be a spring season unlike any in the past one-hundred-plus years. There will be no spring training for the baseball players, no company or family gatherings in the park, no concerts, parades, trips to theme parks, marathons, crowds at the beach, or any of the many other activities we normally associate with spring. In place of Easter egg hunts, church socials, proms and graduations we will be “sheltered in place.”
This is not the end of the world. It is a massive upheaval of our lives. It is scary. It is inconvenient. It is disappointing. It is going to be a tremendous financial, as well as social, and emotional burden for many. There will be much illness, and yes, many deaths. Yet, this too shall pass.
We know that this will pass because everything does. That is the nature of the physical world – the only constant is change.
And it is that change, the change that is the basis for everything on this physical plane, that will birth us into a new paradigm. What that will look like remains to be seen, but be assured it will be a new, improved world on any number of different levels.
It is our human nature that causes us to default to those aforementioned “negative” emotions and feelings. It is our divine nature that allows us to transcend them quickly and know that God is in this situation. Because God is in all situations.
This time of “sheltered in place” is a time to remember, renew, and reinforce our spiritual aspect, and a time to maintain and even increase our spiritual practices. It’s also important to remember that God IS the shelter, and god IS the place.
Social distancing does not mean living in fear. Social distancing is a responsible and sensible approach to limiting, as much as possible, the potential impact of this world-wide dis-ease. It will take a large enough toll without us aiding it either in ignorance or in arrogance. The time for denial and bluster is long past. This is the time for faith, belief, and prayer.
It is a time to rise above the consciousness that engendered such an inordinate condition and brought it forth into the world; to rise above with faith, love, and charity, to a higher-level consciousness. The power of our consciousness is so immense that we can direct and determine our world, individually; the power of the collective consciousness is absolutely awesome in its reach and scope and capability.
There is a Power and Presence from which all things come, and within which all things live and move and have their being. This One Power births and rebirths all of creation, infinitely and eternally. All seeming earthly, human, or natural power is but restricted personalized use of this Power.
There can be no doubt that the current world condition is a result of the collective consciousness being tipped to the side of misuse of the power given us by God, Life, Nature, Spirit (you choose your preferred holy name). This misuse needs to be addressed and corrected.
We have available to us as much of the power of God as we can embody. When we realize, recognize, and responsibly direct this power, for good, there is literally nothing we cannot accomplish. When we attempt to direct this power for selfish, or non-inclusive ends, and if we direct it without being based in love, we find that the Universe cannot respond to that in a positive way.
The Power of Life is such that it must be a power for good. It must be inclusive of all, and it must be directed for use for the highest and best good for all. Any, and all, other use is simply not sustainable. This planet, this universe, and the Consciousness behind it will not self-destruct. If that was going to happen it would have done so sometime in the past fourteen billion years. But it will make any necessary course corrections.
We, as spiritual beings having this human experience, can be conscious participants in our new direction. We are participants in all occurrences, anyway, whether we are aware of it or not. We were unwitting partners in allowing the current situation to develop, when we, as a global community, allowed love and unity and oneness to take a backseat to greed, otherness, prejudice, and misuse of our planet. We can be in the forefront of the movement back to global health by once again recognizing that the Kingdom of God is right here, right now, and we are it! We are Love.
It is Love that we were born from. It is Love that we were born to. It is Love that we were born for, as, and in. It is Love that will be the solution to the problem at hand, because it is Love that is the solution to all problems. Not some fictional, airy-fairy unreality, but real Love. The Love that is God; the Love that is the basis of all Life. The Love that, when shared with all others, restores the Unity that we are and leaves no room for untoward circumstances to develop.
Let’s know, together, that as we consciously immerse ourselves in the Love that is our Divine birthright, that we do so in conscious awareness that we, the population of this planet, are a unity. We are One; we are the indivisible sonship; we are God expressing! We are forever and always bound up with one another as individualized expressions of the One Reality. There is nowhere God is not. There is no one God is not. We are, each and every one of us, divine equals, made in the spiritual image and likeness of God. We control our destiny, individually and collectively. Let us demand, and then command, a world that works for everyone. A world where harmony, peace, joy, and beauty are the norm. A world where nobody is taken for granted, treated as ‘less than,’ or denied his or her rightful place.
I know that a world very much like this is about to rise up out of the present climate. I know, too, that when we allow ourselves to meditate, introspect, and affirm the best possible world while we spend this time “sheltered in place,” in God, we help raise the race consciousness to a new level. It is this very raising up of the global consciousness that guarantees new life, new birth, a new Earth for a new day.
It is with absolute faith, and an unwavering belief in the One Power and One Presence, that I release this word into the Law of Spirit, knowing that as I do, that Law will respond with the only answer It ever gives – “Yes!”
In Love, in faith, and in gratitude, I say, “Thank you, God!” And so it is. Amen.