She Let Go

last weekend, our Board of Trustees was treated to a weekend retreat led by the amazing Rev. Dr. Petra Weldes, senior minister of the Dallas Center for Spiritual Living. It was an amazing weekend with brilliant results. The Board had decided what we wanted to focus on in the retreat. Then Fred Mercado and I had a telephone meeting with Dr. Petra. We wanted to have  a spiritual experience of connection and we wanted to evaluate our Board Commitment and we wanted to create a Mission Statement that moved us forward into our new home. We wanted to examine growth and expansion. We did it all. The Mission of the Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley is:

 This vibrant spiritual center:

·        Teaches Science of Mind principles and practices for transformation and a deepening relationship with the Divine.

·        Creates affirming, inclusive gatherings of unconditional love and acceptance.

·        Contributes to the benefit of the greater community.

We were fairly sizzling with  enthusiasm and agreement when it was completed.

On Friday night, we made a cozy relaxed circle in the back of the all-purpose room. Dr. Petra led us in a meditation and then encouraged us to stay in that consciousness of receptivity to our soul's growth. Then one at a time we were encouraged to read one of the poems that she had brought for the purpose of our deepening. We had many insights from them, including a quote from Meister Eckhart,

"God ripened me

So I see it is true: all objects are wildly in love. "

Each trustee felt deeply connected and provided keen insights to whatever he or she had read. I was the last to read. I read the last poem. Rather it read me. I was sobbing by the third line. It speaks of deep surrender which is something I feel called to do now.

She Let Go by Safire Rose

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of fear. She let go of judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the 'right' reasons. Wholly and completely,

without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn't ask anyone advice. She didn't read 

a book on how to let go.  She didn't read the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all the memories that held her back.

She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of planning and all the calculations about 

how to do it just right.

She didn't promise to let go.

She didn't journal about it.

She didn't write the projected date in her day-timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn't check the weather report or her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn't analyze whether she should let go.

She didn't call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn't do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn't call the prayer line.

She didn't utter one word. She just let go.

No one  was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle.

It wasn't good and it wasn't bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A light breeze blew through her.

And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.

Do People Believe You

Do people believe you when you tell them who you are?

Can you imagine what it would feel like if they didn't believe you?

Knowing that you are more then your history, your culture, your age, your experiences, your intellect, your socio-economic class,  your ethnicity, your biology, your interests, is the greatest gift of our teaching. When we come to discover that we are individualized expressions of the One Divine Mind, we start to fall in love with ourselves. When we start to fall in love with ourselves, our lives change.

One of the most difficult stages in life is adolescence. During this time the roots that have been carefully nourished keep us grounded to what really matters and the wings that we are developing grow stronger, able to carry us through heartache and fears.


We just received this video from Centers for Spiritual Living, which was produced at Teen Camp this summer.  I feel the boys' pain, anger, and frustration. I was deeply moved by their courage to so openly and honestly reveal their feelings. I trust that you  will enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLdBiOVsSBM&feature=youtu.be

What I am aware of in this moment is the need for great compassion, which poured from me while I was watching the video. I am also aware that compassion is just the first step. In addition to compassion, we need to remember who we really are. We need to remember that as energetic beings, we are either attracting people into our lives or repelling people from them. It truly is the Law of Attraction.We need to consciously make room for positive, creative, loving friends in our lives by being what we want to attract. Practicing the principles of the Science of Mind and Spirit is the first step.

I am a spiritual being awakening to the infinite possibilities within me.

Self Appreciation

" There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance;that imitation is suicide;"     Ralph Waldo Emerson

These immortal words in Emerson's essay on Self-Reliance  are just as true today as they were 150 years ago when they were written.

Yet in our current culture we are encouraged to compare ourselves with air-brushed 30-year -old models and to value ourselves by our possessions. Television and print media show us perfect, happy people, perfectly dressed and coiffed,  driving the newest cars. The message is clear that we too can be happy, good-looking and well-dressed if we ...

Nothing could be further from the spiritual truth.

Since the spiritual truth is that we are creative beings, made in the image and nature of Creator, there is absolutely no good reason to imitate or to feel envious! As creative being, our lives are limited only by our imaginations. If we want a certain quality or outcome, we learn to accept it as ours in mind. We learn to treasure the gift of creativity within ourselves.

This is a lesson I have been learning for many years.

When I was a school-age child, I envied my best friend Lois, who always seemed to wear the latest styles in shoes. My parents took our family to a special shoe store, where our feet were carefully measured for the year's sensible shoes. While my friend was wearing penny loafers, I was stuck with saddle shoes. I hated those shoes. they were so old-fashioned! I definitely envied my friend, whose parents let their children buy the shoes in fashion. There were many times that i would have gladly traded my strict stodgy parents for hers. 

During my early-teen years, i was a typically rebellious kid, strong-willed. Some might say stubborn. However, the rebelliousness did not lead me to be an independent thinker. It led me to follow the trends of the day, and to imitate the current Hollywood stars.

Now I can see how blessed I was to have the parents I had, for encouraging me to think for myself and for loving me through all the changes and phases of my life. Ironically, now I think that those saddle shoes were kind of cute.

Saddle Shoes like the ones I had to wear

 

Cute Penny Loafers

You Can't See Them But I likely was Wearing Saddle Shoes

I Refuse to Malpractice!

I love classes!

I love to see people awaken to their spiritual magnificence!

I love to see the veterans of Science of Mind, re-commit to their own spiritual well-being and I love to see myself blossom with awareness. 

I have been teaching Science of Mind classes for 23 years and I still learn something new about myself every class.

Ernest Holmes' brother Fenwicke would claim that his brother, dead for many years, would creep in at night and write new passages. Of course, that didn't really happen. The reason why it appears new is because, I am not the same person I was when I first started studying. It is the same principle that you can't step in the same river twice, you cannot remain at the same level of awareness that you once were.

Thank goodness for that.

I am grateful that I have not yet been able to instantaneously manifest things. I am grateful because I have not always been aware of my divinity nor of the divinity of those around me. It wasn't even safe in the corridors of my mind for some people.

Tonight I was informed that my mom is ill and was taken to hospital. That is all I know. I am using as much spiritual discipline to stay out of worry, which becomes malpractice for a minister.  SoI go back to the basics and I look at the Declaration of Principles which Ernest Holmes wrote in 1927 titles, What I Believe.

It begins :

We believe in God, the living Spirit Almighty, one, indestructible absolute and self-existent Cause. This One manifests Itself in and through all creation, but is not absorbed by Its creation."

This Cause cannot be consumed. It is limitless and eternal.

Knowing that this Cause is where I am and what I am, I choose to see God expressing. Good and Good only.

Please join me in this awareness.