The Joy of Living, Sunday Service

I no longer limit Divine Law in any way. I trust and know that everything I declare comes to me with great benefits added. I experience the Joy of Living! And So It Is!

The Joy of Cause and Effect

The Joy of Cooking

I just had a funny conversation with our administrator Diane Hennessy about the talk title "Joy of Living." She said, "It makes me think about a cookbook." To which I replied, "It is a cookbook! I have it." Then she responded, "No, that is what I thought, too. The cookbook is titled "The Joy of Cooking!" We both have the cookbook.I must admit that I never really found joy in cooking. I have not used my cookbook for a long time, but it didn't change titles. 

Think about it: The Joy of Living! When I hear that phrase, I see Snoopy doing his happy dance. I think of someone who is deliriously happy!

Does your life feel joyful? Do you awaken every day and hug yourself because you are living your life? Do you appreciate your work? your family and friends? your health? Do you break into smiles for no reason other than you are deliciously enjoying being you?

My rigorously honest answer would be sometimes. Sometimes I am so happy, I smile all the time. Sometimes I appreciate my health and praise myself for the well-being I am experiencing. Sometimes I appreciate my friends and family. Sometimes I appreciate my life.

Yes, I am living a privileged, inspired life right now. I am living this inspired life not because of the color of my skin or where I am blessed to live. (Although they are both true as well.) I am living this inspired privileged life because I know who I am and how life gets to be the way it is. I know what causes things to be the way they are. Knowing who I am, automatically brings me joy. 

Pierre Teillard de Chardin wrote, "Joy is the infallible sign of the Presence of God."

Years ago I found some books by Danish philosopher, scientist and poet whose short, sometimes illustrated philosophical poems were called Grooks. His Grooks almost always made me smile.  The idea of cause and effect reminded me of this Grook: 

Rhyme and Reason

"There was an old woman

who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children.

She didn't know what to do.

But try as she would

She could never detect

which was the cause

and which the effect."

I smile when I read or even think about Hein's poetry.

Well, the old woman was puzzled about cause and effect on the physical plane. We can

   laugh about it now.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Like many other people of my era, I thought that life was something that just happened

 to me.

I thought that if I were lucky, I would have happiness, health and peace of mind. 

Now I have come to understand that we have  a limitless power which is always 

responding to us.

I understand that with this Power I am constantly creating the life of my beliefs. 

My deepest beliefs, including all the unexamined ones and the shadows, all of them are

coming into the visible plane through my consciousness.

If I do not like the result, I go back to my perceptions, and after determining what my

false beliefs are, I use affirmative prayer to change my mind, to create a new belief.

I am so grateful for knowing what I know.

Life is good now. Take a moment and let Life tickle you!

Feeling Joy With Baxter and Freddy 

Dealing With Conditions, Sunday Service

There is One Power, One God, One All, One Life, and that life is in me now. I am a manifestation of that One. And So It Is!

Being in Glorious Community

On Easter Sunday, Wade Wooldridge sang a song that I had come across on the internet several months ago, "Glorious" by David Archuletta. I love this song: it has meaningful lyrics and a beautiful melody. I was grateful that Wade learned it. It reminds me of the value of community, of being part of something greater than our individual selves, part of the tapestry of all creation.

It reminds me of our connectedness, our oneness. The saying that "when a butterfly flaps its wings in New York, it can cause a hurricane in Tokyo." It speaks of the interconnectedness of all life.

What it means to each one of us is that our lives matter. No matter what our actions are, whether big or small, what we do matters. Because we think the way we do, it also means what we think about matters.

Paul gave great advice to the Phillipians 4:8 with these words: " Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,and if there be any praise, think on these things."

It is great advice for maintaining healthy-mindedness because it helps us to stay focused on positive thoughts. 

Another reason for staying positive is to keep the thought atmosphere around you wholesome. Dr. Ernest Holmes writes about how unhappy people can influence a whole room without ever saying a thing. Just imagine what happens if Debbie Downer happens to come into the conversation. 

But you and I can decide to be difference-makers. We can decide to take the high road with our thoughts, words and actions thereby creating an atmosphere of love and possibility. A smile can make the difference.

The administrator  in my first Center in Bonita was a difference-maker. She noticed that one of the tellers at our bank was usually cranky and wore a scowl everyday. She came back to the office one day and told me that she had a project which was to prove that like attracts like. She purposely chose the cranky teller and while she was making her deposit, she would ask how the teller was, give small compliments and be "nice" no matter what response she got or didn't get. It only took a few weeks until she was getting smiles in return. 

All of us can make a difference like that.

The song that Wade sang contains these lyrics:

There are times when/ You might feel aimless/ And you can't see the places/ Where you belong. But you will find that there is a purpose. It's been in you, all along/ And when you're near it/ You can almost hear it/ It's like  a symphony/ Just keep listening/ And pretty soon you'll start to figure out your part./ Everyone plays a piece and there are melodies in each one of us! Ooohh it is glorious! And you will know how to let it ring out, as you discover who you are. Others around you will start to wake up/ to the sounds that are in their hearts/It's so amazing, what we're creating..."

I am including a video of  the children's choir singing "glorious" for the movie Meet the Mormons. From this video and song, it appears as if there is a golden thread of truth between our spiritual beliefs.

It is glorious! We are glorious! You are glorious! And so am I!

'Awaken to the Christ Within', Sunday Service

Today I am transparent to transcendence. I am willing to be new and to love new life. I am open to the possibilities of renewal and rebirth because my life is God's life in me. And So It Is!

There is a Tide

One of Diane Hennessy's Roses

Something exciting is happening! Roses are blooming! Beauty is everywhere. I can feel it! Can you? There are so many things it could be. Last week I wrote about spring fever. It could be spring fever but it feels more definite and concrete. It could be Easter which is around the corner and all of Christianity is focused on new beginnings. It could be the energy that came from our town hall meeting last week in which we discussed the pro's and con's of selling our building and buying something with cash!  I am feeling the opening to greater and greater possibilities.

In the play, Julius Caesar, Brutus is speaking with Cassius and utters these immortal words: 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;/ Omitted, all the voyage of their life/ Is bound in shallows and in miseries. /On such a sea are we now afloat, /And we must take the current as it serves, /Or lose our ventures."

Spiritually, it is partially true. We are always surrounded by that tide. When we know we are in the flow of Divine Energy we know good things happen because we are corresponding to the divine nature.  We are reminded that when we trust that divine mind, good is at hand. We don't need to make anything happen. We need to be available and willing for it to happen. 

The second part of the quote which could be fiscally true, is spiritually false. It is incorrect because it elicits fear. When we experience fear, we cannot feel the truth of our faith. It is either fear or faith; it is never both fear and faith.

So as mindful spiritual beings, we do our work. We examine our own motivations, actions, thoughts and beliefs. We look to see if we are making decisions from a sense of our history and lack or from a place of possibility and empowerment.

Are you a possibility thinker? Are you bold and certain? Or are you hesitant and cautious? Are you too quick to react?

The second part of the quote says that if you don't act now, you will struggle forever. As students of the Science of Mind, we know that is no way to think. Creative Mind is forever providing new possibilities. If there were only one tide, what a mean-spirited God that would be. "Oops, you missed it! better luck next life!"

I believe in a loving creative power that had so much faith in each one of us, that it set us free to discover our divine nature for ourselves. Every moment that One is making all things new. There is a new venture. We are encouraged to take action.

So we come to a Center such as this one. We grow in awareness. We listen to that voice for God within and we take action.

Sometimes we can only see part-way to our goal. But keeping the faith, and doing our work, the path is certain to unfold in perfect order. 

Let's trust in the wisdom of divine mind in each one of us to guide us to the right and perfect answer regarding our building and in all other decisions.

It is April and I am experiencing a little bit of spring fever, defined as  a feeling of restlessness. I have been researching short pieces for a wedding I will help officiate in August. Part of my research led me  to a website for on-religious weddings. On it I found a quote which I will share with you in a few minutes. 

First let me tell you that in 1968 in order to complete my Bachelor of Education degree, I needed one last undergraduate class. I chose an introduction to Philosophy -- Philosophy 101. It wasn't exactly Philosophy for Dummies but it was a course that touched upon the well-known philosophers from Plato to Kant. I was young and found most of it exceedingly ponderous. (By that time in my education, I had decided that most so-called intellectuals were neither scholarly nor bright. I was a jaded twenty-year-old!) Then our professor added to the prescribed reading list the book, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I adored the book. It helped me change my mind about the course.  It spoke to the larger concepts that the other philosophers were writing about but in the form of a timeless allegory about love and innocence. It spoke to my heart. It is about a prince from another planet who learned about life from the people and creatures he met on Earth.

By the time I got to this course, I was burnt-out. I had been taking classes without  a break for three years. No summer break. No spring break... just the next class. I was trudging through my higher education. I wanted to be finished with it so I could get to the real work of changing the lives and hearts of teenagers. I had sailed through high school but my grades in University were disastrous; the only "A" I got in University was in Philosophy 101.My enthusiasm for the philosophy class had a great deal to do with the book.  I hope you enjoy this excerpt from The Little Prince.

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.

 "One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . .""What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."
The next day the little prince came back...  

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:
 "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

Perhaps the solution to my spring fever is to find a friend that I can tame.According to Saint-Expurey, I will need to be patient. It will be much more important to be myself  rather  than to speak or do anything in particular.  "Only with the heart can one see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

'99 Years of Private Lessons' Sunday Service

I choose Love this day. I know that Love always points me in the best direction and my conviction swells as I absolutely know this to be true. And So It Is!