Here is a link to a delightful commentary on Life from the Science of Mind perspective. I laughed out loud!
Rev. Glenn Chaffin introduced me to the Science of Mind 33 years ago, and has been a dear friend and mentor ever since.
Check out his ministry at www.NewThoughtStudy.org as well as the June journal entry!
Melodie is bringing out the best in the children on Sunday morning. Here’s a sample of their creativity.
A car drawn by Blaize McClatchey, son of Raven, May 2010.
Flower created out of Playdough by Phoenix McClatchey, sister to Blaize, daughter of Raven, in May 2010.
At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for “miracles” to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he’s backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.
The world’s most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.
Gates spoke about his commitment to using his massive philanthropic resources (the Gates Foundation is the world’s largest) to make life better for people through public health and poverty alleviation (”vaccines and seeds” as he put it). Then he said something he’s never said before: because he’s committed to improving life for the world’s vulnerable people, he now believes that climate change is the most important challenge on the planet.
Read more commentary about his speech here: World Changing: Change Your Thinking And you can view this directly on the TED website.
Words of the 12th century Sufi mystic, poet and spiritual master Ibn Arabi.
The inner space inside what we call the heart
Has many different living scenes and stories,
A pasture for sleek gazelles,
A monastery for Christian monks
A temple with Shiva dancing
A Kaaba for pilgrims
The tablets of Moses are there, the Quran, the Vedas, the Sutras
and the Gospels.
Love is the religion in me and whichever way Love’s camel goes that
way becomes my faith
the source of beauty and a light of sacredness over all things.
Special Video: This is a short video of our UCSL Youth Leader speaking at the youth convention in Denver about giving Pres Obama (who was in the same hotel as the convention last week) a letter of gratitude and a “Be Love” wristband the Youth were giving out at the convention. It’s inspiring!
The Silent Auction was held December 6, 2009
100% of Proceeds went to the OSC General Operating Fund…
Items Were contributed for the 6 weeks before the Auction.-
If you are interested in seeing the auctioned items click the Read More link. [Read more →]
This is an article penned by a friend who has been ordained at Asilomar as a minister for Centers for Spiritual Living this past summer - Jim
We all have a story. This story may or may not accurately reflect our life path, but it is our story none the less. It is how we have come to think of ourselves, and how we choose to present ourselves to the world around us.
Our stories are our beliefs about our lives, about life in general. They are compilations of what we have learned along the way, the experiences that have shaped our minds, how we think, act and present ourselves to the world.
Many people firmly believe that they are their stories. We can become so attached to it that it defines us, and limits our experience of life. We forget that it is our past, not our present. This does not necessarily have to be so. We need not be bound by our past, or defined by our story. We are what we believe ourselves to be. And we are free to be anything we choose.
I invite you to think about liberation from the story, the possibility that many of the beliefs that we have accumulate along the way are not in fact The Truth. Not our Truth and not God’s Truth. I believe this to be so, and I have spent more time unlearning than I have in accumulating new information. I have stepped out of my story, and into my present.
We each have the power to change our story at any time we choose. We have the choice to release our story completely, to free ourselves from our accumulated ideas of who and what we are, and what we can and cannot do with our lives. The fact is that the present moment represents our Truth much more accurately than our stories ever did, ever could, or ever will.
We are as free as we give ourselves permission to be.
I invite you to look at your story. I ask you to be more honest with yourself than you have ever been in your life. I ask you if your story is your Truth. I invite you to consider letting go of what you were, in order to step into what you are.
What if you were to release old thoughts and beliefs, old patterns and anxieties and fears that have limited your experience of life, indeed that continue to limit your experience of life today? What would it feel like to wake each day with a blank canvas before us, upon which we could create anything we choose? Can you even imagine the possibility?
Our ego likes things just the way they are. Even if we are miserable, there is a certain comfort in the familiar. We know how to be when we are how we have always been.
I invite you to step out of the familiar, to trust yourself and your God, so that you might come to know the real you as you are today, in the present moment, to see yourself apart from your story. This may bring up feelings of fear and resistance. Ego may even now be standing firm in your mind saying, “Of course I know who I am.” I invite you to have the courage to look again.
You are, quite probably, different than you have come to believe. Perhaps it is your time to come to know who and what you truly are today. Perhaps it is your time to become liberated, free to be authentic, to embody your Truth, regardless of your story.
We all have a story. There may, however, be a significant difference between our story and our Truth. If you can get past the fear, past the sureness, if you can just for a few minutes ask yourselves if your story, and the old beliefs that go along with it is in any way limiting your experience of life today, the answers you find may surprise you.
We are what we believe ourselves to be. And we are free to be anything we choose.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Anderson
One of our UCSL ministers, Rev. Kathryn McDowell, sent the following poem on to us in remembrance of Michael Jackson. In her deep sadness about Jackson’s death, she is feeling also sadness about the numbers of people who have so much within their grasp, yet “cannot find that moment within themselves that allows them to leave behind the patterns and experiences of the past that shaped their sadness and truly move into Light and Peace. We in new Thought are blessed in hearing of so many who have been able to make that bend in the road. But there are so many more…”
I Stand By the Door
by Samuel Moor Shoemaker
I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world –
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind folks,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it . . .
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door – the door to God.
The most important thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch – the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person’s own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter –
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find God . . .
So I stand by the door.
God gives me opportunities… God gives me opportunities… I have to listen carefully… because he gives me opportunities… opportunities, opportunities… because he loves me.
You must listen carefully. You must listen carefully… because God wants to speak to you. God will give you instructions but you must listen carefully… so he can speak to you… He talks very softly… To hear his voice you must be very still… so you can hear his whisper in your heart… He surely will nudge you… He can speak to you with an inner voice… but you must be quiet and listen carefully. Be very, very quiet and God will talk to you… because He love you.
God is always near. When you have a serious problem you cannot discuss with your teacher or your mom or dad or your friend… you can tell your troubles to God. Because He loves you and He loves you to talk to Him. He is your best friend… He always has time for you… because he loves you… He adores you… You’re special to him and you can have a conversation with Him… because He loves you.
God love me… God loves me… He always has time for me… He cares if I am hurt… He is my friend… He doesnt care if I’m black or white, rich or poor… He love me… He’ll teach me… He’ll answer me… Because He loves me. He doesn’t care if I’m pretty or smart… He loves me… especially me.
He has a plan for me… He sent for me especially me… God wants me to be the best I can… He’ll help me… He’ll talk to me… because he loves me. Who does he love??????????????? He loves me. Who ?????????????? Me… expecially me… I’m special to Him.
Opportunity… opportunity… He’ll give me opportunity… because he loves me… He’ll help me find a way but I must listen carefully, must listen carefully, must listen quietly… so He can talk to me. It may be a feeling… It may be a song I hear… It may be a hunch I get… But I must learn to be aware so He can get in touch with me. I must trust Him… I must listen carefully to Him. He is always near me and can always be found… He is my best friend and He loves me!!!!!!!!!!! Who??????????????????? Me… Especially me.
DEE RAY
Recently, Rev Barbara Bur Sr Minister at Creative Living Church of Greeley, CO had an interview with Jill Bolte Taylor on her radio program. You can listen to it if you are enjoying her work at:
http://memosfromlife.com/062308.html
They spoke a great deal about living in the state of bliss - our right brain, rather than returning to living in the land of the left brain.
Barb and Viv talk with Jill Bolte Taylor, author of My Stroke of Insight. Recently recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Dr. Taylor is a trained and published neuroanatomist. She specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. Because she has a brother who has been diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, Dr. Taylor served for 3 years on the board of directors of the national NAMI organization (National Alliance on Mental Illness) between 1994-1997. Currently she serves as President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI.
As irony would have it, on December 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arterio-venous malformation (AVM). Three weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball size hemorrhage that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.
For the past ten years, Dr. Taylor has been successfully rebuilding her brain - from the inside out. In response to the swelling and trauma of the stroke which placed pressure on her dominant left hemisphere, the functions of her right hemisphere have blossomed. Join us as we explore the magnificence and reslience of the human brain with Dr. Taylor.