Darling Phoebe, who I thought would be my forever dog, left today for her new home.  I was her “permanent foster mom” for the owner, who breeds top quality Standard Poodles.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t go to the States with me, and so this morning, with cuddles, tears and a heavy heart, I had to let her go.  

 It made me think about all the other times I have gone on what I call “Grand Spiritual Adventures.”   There was always a letting go.  I believe it is this way for all of us.  We make sacrifices – and we do it consciously or unconsciously.

 When I first came to Canada in 2000, I had shipped my 1989 Mustang from Hawai’i.  I loved this car - - it had every bell and whistle you can imagine, and I looked really good in it.   But more than that – my husband had given me this car, which made it a treasure of the heart.

 One night after class, Brad, a student who has taught me so much over the past 9 years, was walking me to my car, and we were talking about attachments.  Having just sold everything, left a successful church in Hawaii, along with my husband and family of choice – I said “I don’t have any attachments.”  Brad said “Really?” and I responded “Well, my car. I really like my car – it’s the last thing I have from Hawai’i.”   A few weeks later, when I returned from the Asilomar Conference  in California, I discovered that my car, which had been parked on the street in front of my apartment, had been slammed into by a drunk driver, and totaled.   

 That’s when I learned that the root of the word ‘sacrifice’ is from the Latin meaning “to perform sacred functions.”   You see, I wailed and cried for a few days about the sacrifices I had made to come to Canada, as if Something Else was making me do them.   I was used to thinking of sacrifice as something awful – yet when I looked it up and discovered the words original meaning, I began to approach it with a sense of the sacred.  I realized letting go is an important spiritual practice. 

 Will we be sad?  Of course.  Grief is natural and wants to be expressed.  It is like a cleansing – a removal of another layer of dust to reveal the Diamond Within. We sacrifice something we have been - to be more – something more magnificent.

 Phoebe is going to a new family who has another Standard Poodle to play with and lots of acreage.  I am going home to the States, to a larger community and lots of possibilities.  The members and friends of Celebration Centre are stepping into a new Grand Spiritual Adventure themselves, collectively and individually.  And I declare it’s all going to be Good, very Good!

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 God is the only Presence.  God is Love and Love is the only Power.   We all live, move and have our being in Love.  We are living the One Life of The Divine.

 Knowing this, I now declare that letting go is a sacred experience.  As we move through our Grand Spiritual Adventures, letting go so that we can be Revealed Truth in action, we know that only good is real.

  We acknowledge our feelings, and allow Nature to nurture us through them, and then cleansed, we turn, with eager anticipation, to the New Path we have chosen.

 As we let go, we let God fulfill our Souls Contract.  This Contract is about awakening more and more each day to our spiritual magnificence.  I declare that we claim it, feel it, and see it reflected in our world!  How wonderful it is!

 I release these words into the Law of Mind with a grateful heart.  And so it is.

 

I am leaving Canada the end of this year.  I have accepted the position of Senior Pastor of the Center for Spiritual Living in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

At lunch after our Gathering last Sunday, as I was answering some questions about my new position, one of our congregation said “You are so lucky.”  I heard myself replying “Luck had nothing to do with it!  I’ve been treating for this for the past 24 years!”

 

As I said this, I remembered another occasion.  A group of us had arrived in Egypt in the middle of the night, tired and hungry.  I went to bed as soon as I walked into the hotel room, and the next morning, opened the curtains to see the Great Pyramid in all its glory!  I sat in awe on the balcony watching the sunlight move up the face of the pyramid and thought “I am so lucky!”  and a voice inside my head said “Luck had nothing to do with it!  You’ve wanted to be here all your life.”

 

Spiritual Law works whether we are aware of it or not, and it works according to our receptivity.  Yes, I had wanted to go to Egypt since I was a child. I had pictures on my treasure map, and looked longingly airfares and tour companies.  One day I received a flyer about a conference in Egypt called “Personal and Planetary Spiritual Evolution,” but after looking at the price, threw the flyer away.  I couldn’t stop thinking about that trip though. Then the office phone rang and Terry Weiss of Power Places Tours told me I had been recommended as a speaker and would I like to participate?  I couldn’t imagine who had recommended me, but said YES!  After getting off the phone and doing my happy dance, I realized I was finally receptive to the idea of going, and the trip manifested in ways I could hardly imagine. 

 

Dr. Ernest Holmes wrote, "But even God cannot give us anything unless we are in a mental condition to receive the gift.  The Law cannot do anything for us unless It can do it through us.  We live in the midst of eternal good, but it can only be to us what we believe it to be.  We stand at the mouth of the river, but we must let down our own bucket if we wish it filled with the pure waters of Reality."

 

If you have a desire you’re waiting to manifest – don’t give up, no matter how long it takes.  Keep doing your spiritual work.  Check your level of receptivity.

 

And perhaps you might use this prayer by Dr. Kathianne Lewis of the Center for Spiritual Living, Seattle:

"Reveal to me the finished Kingdom though which I walk".

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

We live in an infinite Field of creative potentiality.  This Field is Source Energy – the beginning of all that is, including us.   This Field is impressed with our thoughts and feelings and becomes the 3D world we live in. 

 

Knowing this, I now declare I am ready to step into my greatness.  I let go of my little ideas about myself and release all doubts and fears.  I step up to the River of Reality and drink my fill.  I walk through a finished Kingdom and I recognize It!

 

Gratefully I release these words, knowing they are embodied deep within my subjective mind.  I know God is absolutely everywhere – and where ever God is – all is good.

 

And so it is.

Whoo Hoo!  Friday the 13^th!   Started out with huge hail storm and a tree falling over in my neighbours back yard.  Now, if I was superstitious, which I’m not (well, most of the time) or living in ancient times – these two experiences together could possibly be a disastrous omen.  

It’s that ole fear of the unknown and constant search for meaning. 

Rev. Shelly Downs of the Tree of Life Center in La Crescenta, California, posted this on her FB status: 

“F.E.A.R.  Many have heard this is an acronym for "False Evidence Appears Real"..... I have changed the focus a bit to be "Feeling Excited And Ready". For truly, what do we have to fear, when we are One with God?”  

I love this!!   We are so used to the feeling of fear that I’ll bet we mistake excitement for fear many times over.   For instance – you’re getting ready to go on stage – you know your lines – you love acting – yet there’s that feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Your mind says “Stage Fright” and you might flub a line.  What if it was really excitement?

Or – You’ve been asked to go out with a new person for the first time – again you have that feeling in your stomach.  Your mind says “What if he/she isn’t right for you?” and follows it up with the litany of sorrows from past dates or relationships.  You might not go and miss something wonderful!! What if it was really excitement?

Or – you’ve applied for a new job, and you feel that feeling again.  Your mind interprets it as “what if I don’t get it” and gives a multitude of reasons why.  What if it is really excitement!

What if we had identified the feeling we were feeling in these examples as “Feeling Excited And Ready?!”   How would that change the course of events?     

Ernest Holmes writes:   “In principle and in potential we are immersed in good for we are in the Mind of God. But we have freedom, or volition, to create in our own experience, out of the possibilities of life with which we have been endowed, the prerogative of heaven or hell. So we need to shake ourselves loose from the tyranny of fear and superstition and isolation and the emotional traditions.”  

The Science of Mind (and many other faith traditions) teach:  All there is, is God. When we truly embody this, we know there is nothing to be afraid of.   Next time you feeling those feelings ask yourself “Am I really afraid, or am I Feeling Excited and Ready for all the good I am attracting into my life?”  I choose excited and ready!!     

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

Gratefully I allow myself to breathe deeply and go to the center of my being.  Here is where the fountain of all good begins – the Source of me.  This Source is infinitely intelligent and unconditionally loving.  It is everywhere I am, because in Truth, It is all there is.

 

Resting in this sacred space - I feel all fear I have about anything drain away.  In its place I find peace – a Divine Peace I now realize was there all along.  This Divine Peace moves through me, realigning everything unlike Its perfect pattern in every area of my life – my body, my work, my finances, my relationships.  I feel a deep sense of harmony as I recognize how connected I am with The All.

 

How grateful I am to have this experience.  I choose to let this feeling permeate my subjective mind, and it feels so good.  I am feeling excited and ready to enjoy my life!  It is God’s Life and I have made It a good one!

 

I release these words, knowing they are so, and so it is.

With the holiday season arriving, we are beginning to hear complaints (though not too seriously) about the foods available.  In Canada, Christmas baking is BIG – shortbread, cookies, fudge, fruit cake, butter tarts, mincemeat tarts, homemade truffles, lots of chocolates of all kinds …. Anyone besides me drooling yet?  Oh – and eggnog – yumm! Some of us women joke that we might as well glue it to our hips since we feel that’s where it will show up anyway.  Last year I heard myself saying “All I have to do is look at the holiday goodies and I gain weight.”  And the Universe said “Yes, my darling,” and so I did.

Magazines are now coming out with articles about weight programs for the holidays.   Indeed weight loss is one of the biggest money making ventures around.  Open any magazine, or go to your local bookstore and see how many different ideas there are about weight loss for both women and men.

Yes, at the bottom of all of our concerns about our bodies are ideas – ideas we’ve accepted according to where we live and what’s in style.  Ideas that are based in fear – fear that we won’t be pretty or handsome enough, fear that we won’t be acceptable in society - plain old fear of not being enough!

Nithya Shanti, a spiritual teacher in India, wrote as his status line on Facebook one day:  “Our bodies are magnificent. They are condensed Divinity. There is nothing in them at all to despise or be embarrassed about. Any cultural or religious ideas to the contrary can safely be abandoned at once.” 

The Ancient Hawaiians believed the bigger you were the more mana you had (mana = spiritual power).     Our bodies are condensed Divinity – or we could say thick thought.  How does this idea change the way you will see yourself the next time you look in the mirror?   

Looking at my body from this perspective erases the guilt of holiday eating.  I will be conscious about what I’m eating and I will allow myself the pleasure of experiencing this once-a-year feasting.

Together, let’s abandon the fears of not being enough because of what we look like.  Let’s enjoy being in a body.  It’s an amazing self-repairing earth suit, designed by us, with abilities to experience the world we’re creating through our senses!  It is God coalesced into form for our adventure here called Life.

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

There is only One Life – God’s Life.  I am an expression of this One Life, living in a body I have created with my thoughts to be here now.

 

How grateful I am for every cell of this body.  I have eyes that see, ears that hear, a nose that smells, a tongue that tastes, and hands that touch—and these things that allow me to experience through my senses are only a tiny part of the wonderful organism that I am. I am grateful for my skeletal structure, my muscles, and tendons. I am grateful for all the organs that are within me and the work they do for me automatically.  I am grateful for the blood that moves through my body, bringing oxygen and removing that which is no longer necessary.  I am grateful for my brain and all the electrochemical activities that run the body. 

 

I now let go of any negative thinking I have been doing about my body.  I choose to see it as the condensed Divinity It is.  I am grateful that I now realize that this body is truly the Temple of the Most High.

 

The I AM that I am loves and nourishes and uses this body with great respect.  I see this reflected in the way I treat my body.  It is God in form.

 

I release these words into the Law of Mind, knowing they are planted deep within my subjective mind, becoming a builder of my universe, and this is good, very good.   And so it is.

 

Halloween’s an interesting time of year.  It’s a time when we give ourselves permission to be creative – it’s also a time when we give ourselves permission to be scared and make it fun.  In the human experience we seem to fall easily into mental scary places.  We fear illness, the world financial situation, or that our jobs or our love will end.  We find ourselves imagining all sorts of scary stories but it’s not fun.

Years ago when I was living in Los Angeles, as I was driving home from a week long trip, I saw that the hills in which I lived were on fire.  I started worrying about my cats and my home.  Various scary scenarios flashed through my mind until I could hardly breathe, my heart was pounding and every muscle in my body was rigid.  As I kept driving I realized the fire wasn’t anywhere close to where I lived.  I was so grateful my home was safe yet it took me a little while to come back to normal physically. This experience made me realize how powerful my imagination was. 

Our imaginations are one of the most awesome tools in our spiritual tool box.  Yet our imagination cannot tell what is real or not real, so letting our imagination run wild from a fear base can cause effects that are not conducive to our highest good.

When the darker side of our dreams seems to bleed into our imaginations, it is the perfect opportunity to work through our fears. How do we do this?   First we admit we are afraid.  We face them head on and recognize them as dream blockers. We claim the Truth about them.  They are not Real.  We don’t beat ourselves up for being scared.  We laugh at the costume that fear took!!  Then we get busy and have fun imagining what we really want!

J. K Rowling, author of the delightful Harry Potter books, said in her 2008 commencement address to Harvard:  “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

One Power, one Presence – one Heart, one Mind.  This is The Divine.  The Source and substance of all there is, including me.  I celebrate my conscious awareness of this One, as I speak my word into spiritual law:

 

No longer do I let fear immobilize me.  No longer do I let fear take over my imagination to block my dreams.   I declare I am fear-free.  I use my imagination to visualize a world that is fear-free.  And it feels good.

 

I also declare that anytime fear creeps into my imagination the Silent Witness gently and humourously reminds me that this is not my Truth.  

 

I am so grateful for this wonderful tool.  I build my Vision for my life with ease and grace.  I experience what I imagine and it is good.

 

I release these words into the Law of Mind, knowing they are so, and so It is.

Bonnie, a wonderful artist friend of mine in Hawaii, posted a picture on Facebook of a living room that was totally black and white except for a few red flowers. I found it interesting to read people’s reactions to the picture. To Bonnie, who’s also an interior decorator, the picture reflected a room that was elegant, dramatic and sophisticated (tho she wouldn’t want to have to clean it) … someone else thought it was too sterile … I wanted more red.

I reflected on our thinking processes. Some like everything to be black and white. Some like lots of drama. Some like lots of colour, lots of details. Some like simplicity. No one is wrong. We are all right in our own way. My right might not agree with your right but that doesn’t make either of us wrong. Imagine how our world would be if we could accept this.

The Hawaiians have a forgiveness process that is popular right now. Ho’o pono pono. The word means “to be the cause of making the right right.” There is no wrong. There is only a revealing of a higher Truth.

The Truth is we are all unique individualized expressions of the One Mind. How grateful I am that we don’t all think the same! Whether your world is black and white or full of colour – I KNOW it is beautiful!!


SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

I recognize the powerful presence of The Divine all around me. It is in everything, everywhere. It is the Source and substance of all that is. It is the Lifeforce within me. It is – and it is all there is.

Today I declare I am willing to let go of any judgments I have about how others think or live their lives. I now see them as another unique expression of God. I appreciate our differences.
I am also willing to let go of any judgments of how I think. I appreciate my uniqueness.

Because of my willingness, I see the blessings of Peace filling our world. I sense a calmness filling my atmosphere. Life is good, very good.

I release these words into the Law of Mind, knowing they are so. And so it is.

Rev. Yvonne Davidson, a friend in Kelowna, sent me this story and I had to share it with you:

I had the opportunity of meeting a wonderful Chiropractor who has been working with David and I since March.  He said he had come to Kelowna to heal the city. 

 

He accepts a patient, X-rays them, sees them three times a week for three months, twice a week for three months, then once a week for three months.  His theory is that we have to train the body to re-member how to hold the adjustments he gives it.

 

What amazed me is that he asks each patient how much they can pay per month and if they can't pay anything, they don't, and whatever they can afford is what they pay for their treatments!  No balance piling up, no accounting each month. 

 

He belongs to Trinity Baptist Church and is a very delightful, cheerful and positive Christian, who knows all about how the mind and body work together.  Our philosophies differ very little. 

 

He told me he used to go to church every Sunday and volunteer his time.  One day he thought; "There are lots of people who volunteer here".  So now every Sunday he goes down to the Mission where they do a breakfast for the homeless and he does around 30 Chiro adjustments for street people.  Here is a man who really walks his talk.

 

Yes, here is a man who really walks his talk.   I love his willingness to know his gifts so clearly and give them regardless of what our society would say.  I can just hear his fellow chiropractors – “You mean you just give it away? You can’t do that!”   Yes he can and yes he does.

 

My teacher, the late Rev. Helen Street, used to say that within 5 minutes of conversation she could tell what God the person had.  As I read this e-mail, I see a man whose God is a loving, giving God.  One that supports him in doing the work he knows he must do. One that he trusts.     

I love this God.

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

I acknowledge the Divine Energy that is within us all.  This Divine Energy is the Source, the sustainer and the substance of all.  It is Love working through Law.  It is, and It is all there is.

 

Knowing this I speak my word into this wonderful Energy and I declare “I am ready and willing to be all I can be.  I am ready to give my gifts to the world and I am ready to trust that everything needed to do this work is already at hand.”

 

I celebrate my willingness, my courage and my ability to trust.   I am so grateful for these Principles and the Universe’s constant reminder of them.  I gratefully step forward in faith and do the work I am here to do.  God in me, as me, is living a wonderful life!

 

I release these words to the Law of Mind, knowing they are done, and so it is.

Someone said the other day that the world is changing and because of that, their life was changing.  It’s true, our lives are changing and will never been the same, moment to moment.  Change means the process of becoming different. Aren’t we always doing that?  Don’t we desire to do that?  We want to become more authentic, more loving, be more of service, and in order to do that something in us must change.  Change is natural on the physical level – yet we are so afraid of it.    

Holmes writes in the Science of Mind “All seeming change is merely the play of Life upon Itself.”  Creation demands change as Life creates by a process of Divine Self-Imagination, and Life’s imagination flows through us at the level of our receptivity.  The only thing that ever changes is form.    The form might be our job, our home, even our relationships. Because of our fears, we often resist change when everything inside of us is urging us to move!  I call that urge a sense of Divine Discontentment.   

Holmes also writes:  “Nature will not let us stay in any one place too long.  She will let us stay just long enough to gather the experience necessary to the unfolding and advancement of the soul.  This is a wise provision, for should we stay here too long, we would become too set, too rigid, too inflexible.  Nature demands the change in order that we may advance.  When the change comes, we should welcome it with a smile on the lips and a song in the heart.”  

Yes, change is happening, and always will.  Let’s move into our changes with a clear understanding that Who We Are in Truth never changes, just the forms.  Let’s welcome change, knowing it is an advancement of our soul. 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

I acknowledge and celebrate the powerful Presence of the Divine right here and now.  I know It is absolutely everywhere including within me.  It serves me though Law according to my awareness of It, and I serve It with Love.

 

I now declare I am ready to accept that Who I Am in Spirit is changeless.  I am Spirit in form, and it is the form that changes.  I accept these changes as results of my consciousness.  Every change in my live is about advancing my expression of Self, about growth in consciousness, and about having a deeper experience of the Divine.  I declare that change is good!

 

With a grateful heart I let go and let God guide me to my highest good and greatest joy.  I release these words into the Law of Mind, knowing they are done.  And so it is.

Several times a day I take Phoebe through her “training” routine.  The normal “sit, stay, and heel,” etc.   This morning was exhausting!  She was being a wild child!! She wanted to do what she wanted to do and I had a really hard time being the pack leader.  Part of me just wanted to let her run and play and be a dog, yet I know that if I let up on the training, it will be more difficult the next time. 

 

On the walk home, I realized our minds are a lot like puppies.  They need training.  Consistent training. And even when we think we’ve got it, we need reinforcement training. 

 

I know we sometimes get discouraged or overwhelmed by this work.  Sometime it seems so hard!   We do our Spiritual Mind Treatments, we journal, we meditate, we listen to great messages on Sundays, yet still, that thing our heart desires isn’t manifesting.   We’re not happy.  Why is this?  We’ve let our minds go wild.

 

I don’t know how many times over the past 30 years that I’ve been in this teaching when I thought “Oh to be ignorant again – ignorance is bliss.”  Yet when we’re ignorant, we fall into the collective unconscious way of thinking.  What’s in the collective unconscious you ask?  Turn on the radio or your television, and what ever the story is, it’s probably based in fear!  Remember, we attract what we are predominantly thinking and feeling!

 

We’re like spiritual athletes, constantly assessing our performance, moving into more training. And as most athletes will tell you, training in a group is a great experience.  Classes started this month – are you in one?  That training brings awesome rewards!    

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

Gratefully I honour The Divine Presence within us, among us and around us. It is the Sustainer of Life, Love and all things.  It is all there is.

 

I know this Presence as both Love and Law, therefore I now speak my word into this Law, declaring:

“I am an excellent spiritual athlete.  I have a trained mind, and the trained mind is the dominant mind.  I know that as I declare a thing, it is done with ease.”

 

Because I have declared this, the whole Universe rushes forward to make this my reality.  Doors open, opportunities abound.  Life is good. 

 

I celebrate my conscious awareness of Principle, and the knowledge of how to use it to create a world that works for everyone including me!   I live my life in gratitude, and it is good, very good.

 

I release these words, knowing they are so, and so it is.

I love following the multifaith calendar.  There are so many celebrations, so many delightful rituals.

Tonight at sundown Rosh Hashanah begins.  This is the Jewish New Year. There are many rituals and prayers involved in this holy time – and the one I resonate to is Tashlikh (Hebrew for “casting off”).  During the afternoon, people go to a large, natural body of flowing water and “cast off” the previous years sins by throwing pieces of bread into the water.  The word ‘sin’ in the biblical Hebrew, the generic word for sin is het. It means to err, to miss the mark.

Tomorrow, September 19 is Navratri (or nine nights), a Hindu holiday that honors Shakti or the Divine Feminine/Mother and looks to her for spiritual cleansing, guidance, and enlightenment.

Dr. Holmes writes in the glossary of the Science of Mind, under Feminine Principle:  “The Universal Soul.  In us, the subjective or subconscious intelligence.  The Universal Medium or Soul has been called the “Womb of Nature,” and the “Holy Mother,” because It is receptive to the Spirit, and is impregnated with Divine Ideas.  It gives birth to the Ideas of the Spirit, and is, therefore the Feminine Principle of Nature. 

Even the holy days of this month are telling us to clear the clutter to make room for what we want to manifest in our lives!!  There’s a brook running through our back yard – I am going to use the Jewish ritual to let go of all the things I might be holding against myself or others.  My main error or the mark I might have missed would be to think that myself and others are not God.

Then I will use the Feminine Principle to consciously connect with my Hearts desires and let those take the place of the ‘sins’ I let go of.  My Hearts desire is to be happy and of service to my world.  To be loved and loving.  To feel all my feelings. To see everything as Divine. 

How would you use the energy of these holy days?

 

 

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

 

I celebrate the holiness, the wholeness, of the One Life that is the Source and Sustainer of all things. I know It is absolutely everywhere, including within me.

 

In this Oneness is both Love and Law – Love pointing the way, and Law making the way possible.  I now speak with Love into the Law and declare:  I am willing to let go and be more Real.  I am willing to accept my Good with an open heart and mind and arms.  I am willing to accept the Truth of my being, which is God.

 

As I declare and feel my willingness, Life fulfills the desires of my heart. Both the ones I am conscious of and the ones I am not.  I see Life opening up for me as I open up for It.  And this is good, very good.

 

Gratefully I release these words, celebrating their being embodied deeply in my subjective mind, and seeing them manifest.   And so it is.