There’s a humorous take on one of our long held truths that I love to say: When a door closes, somewhere a window opens. The rub is that often the hallway between them is so dark and long! As I write this essay we are about to enter a New Year, 2012 – a year that promises many opportunities for people of faith, we human beings who are aware that we’re on a spiritual journey, to do our thing, our divinely appointed task. There are folks who point to the predictions that the world as we know it will end in this year 2012. And it appears that the last few years have brought many earth changes, political and economic changes too. Yet we do realize as we turn within that the spirit of God empowers us for positive change. For if nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. 

                     Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet writes, “Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” We create shells, and to a degree, we need these shells. We need containers in our life experience such as belief systems, relationships, structures and such. And just as the chicken in the egg, there is a time when the container nurtures and is absolutely necessary. And there is a time when the shell has to break so the chicken can come out. Ironically, the very same shell that nurtured, protected, and provided life for that little chick could also imprison and entomb this little being, and ultimately kill it, if the chick does not break free.

         So it is with all the structures of our life. We take them on, and they nurture and support us, and then the time comes when they need to change; when we need to let them go. Doing this is often so painful and people resist it. We, as loving, kind and compassionate spiritual beings can be there for others in these times. Our thing, as I see it, is for us to be there as a light and spiritual support to those who need comforting, loving, accepting and remembering that we are not alone. God is always available, closer than our breath. In our Chaplain program we call this holding a spiritual space.

         Holding spiritual space is to be aware, conscious and connected with Spirit; to be attuned to our internal and external connection to life. It is to hold open the realm of possibilities, knowing that in the midst of the circumstances, situations, and conditions of people’s lives God is greater than any of these things. Holding a spiritual space is about simultaneously being both a compassionate listener and a conduit for God’s guidance to come through you.

         Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed. God is the changeless constant you can depend upon. The ultimate Truth of God is you are a spiritual being, ever one with God and you are never alone. Through all the days of your life, many outward changes have taken place, but the real you created by God has not changed. In time of failure, it has not been defeated; in time of accomplishment it has not been inflated.

          God’s power is greater than any change we face. We are enfolded constantly in God’s love and perfect guidance. We allow our thoughts to rest in the realization that God is all power, all-knowing, and everywhere present. We keep our eye spiritually fixed on God’s constant, protecting presence which guides our steps and blesses our lives. We give thanks for this awareness, for it is from this spiritual space that we can meet whatever changes come our way.

A Window Opening … by Rev. Lane Williams

There’s a humorous take on one of our long held truths that I love to say: When a door closes, somewhere a window opens. The rub is that often the hallway between them is so dark and long! As I write this essay we are about to enter a New Year, 2012 – a year that promises many opportunities for people of faith, we human beings who are aware that we’re on a spiritual journey, to do our thing, our divinely appointed task. There are folks who point to the predictions that the world as we know it will end in this year 2012. And it appears that the last few years have brought many earth changes, political and economic changes too. Yet we do realize as we turn within that the spirit of God empowers us for positive change. For if nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. 

                     Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet writes, “Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” We create shells, and to a degree, we need these shells. We need containers in our life experience such as belief systems, relationships, structures and such. And just as the chicken in the egg, there is a time when the container nurtures and is absolutely necessary. And there is a time when the shell has to break so the chicken can come out. Ironically, the very same shell that nurtured, protected, and provided life for that little chick could also imprison and entomb this little being, and ultimately kill it, if the chick does not break free.

         So it is with all the structures of our life. We take them on, and they nurture and support us, and then the time comes when they need to change; when we need to let them go. Doing this is often so painful and people resist it. We, as loving, kind and compassionate spiritual beings can be there for others in these times. Our thing, as I see it, is for us to be there as a light and spiritual support to those who need comforting, loving, accepting and remembering that we are not alone. God is always available, closer than our breath. In our Chaplain program we call this holding a spiritual space.

         Holding spiritual space is to be aware, conscious and connected with Spirit; to be attuned to our internal and external connection to life. It is to hold open the realm of possibilities, knowing that in the midst of the circumstances, situations, and conditions of people’s lives God is greater than any of these things. Holding a spiritual space is about simultaneously being both a compassionate listener and a conduit for God’s guidance to come through you.

         Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed. God is the changeless constant you can depend upon. The ultimate Truth of God is you are a spiritual being, ever one with God and you are never alone. Through all the days of your life, many outward changes have taken place, but the real you created by God has not changed. In time of failure, it has not been defeated; in time of accomplishment it has not been inflated.

          God’s power is greater than any change we face. We are enfolded constantly in God’s love and perfect guidance. We allow our thoughts to rest in the realization that God is all power, all-knowing, and everywhere present. We keep our eye spiritually fixed on God’s constant, protecting presence which guides our steps and blesses our lives. We give thanks for this awareness, for it is from this spiritual space that we can meet whatever changes come our way.

          When you live in Vermont it’s easy to be filled with an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. It swells up inside us as we see the beauty of the trees turning color and sense the serenity in the woods as we walk. God’s grace is all around us. It is easy to see that Divine Love is bestowing more peace and well-being into our lives than we could imagine. We are reaping more of Spirit’s harvest of plenty than the seeds of hope we have sown. This is the Grace of God and we are thankful!

            Today’s challenge in the midst of dire economic predictions and earth shattering calamities is to cultivate gratitude even when so much of the world around us is not expressing this. We can choose gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation for that which we have and that which we envision possible. For yes, we do live IN the world, yet we can be not OF the world. Instead of operating with the “normal” and expected human thought patterns, we can choose to come from a higher consciousness. And as we do, we are sowing seeds of joy, peace, and love to the world.

            When the outer world is not revealing anything that we can give thanks for in the present moment, the accepted pattern is to worry, complain, to withhold ourselves, waiting until the world gets better before we move forward. The usual, “normal” way of expressing gratitude is to see something deemed wonderful in our midst and from that place say, Thank you. But let’s choose another path.

            The opportunity now is to lift our consciousness to the level of Spirit and decree from that elevated plane that Life is good all the time. This is the chance to affirm that God’s good is flowing in and through my life, no matter what evidence of lack there may be. Eric Butterworth says that “thanksgiving is not just a reactionary emotion; it is a causative energy. It is an effective key by which anyone may meet life as a powerful conqueror.” Let us be spiritual conquerors of our thinking and therefore our lives. As spiritual masters we decree that lack is an illusion, a misperception. We decree that what we are envisioning is present now and active in our life, and we give thanks in advance for the beauty, the wonder, and the magnificence of God’s abundance.

            Just as a gardener prepares the soil, plants the seeds and tends the garden through the growing season, we are to prepare our minds by releasing our fearful, anxious, negative thoughts. We are to plant the seeds of peace, prosperity, perfect health, and well-being in our consciousness. We are to weed out all negative error thinking as it arises, to remain vigilant to our anxious monkey mind chatter and root it out before it takes hold. And just as the wise gardener uses companion plants that support the growth and vitality of his crops, we promote our well-being by being with positive people, associating with friends who focus on thoughts of love and harmony – those positive, uplifting expansive thoughts that support the development of our higher consciousness.

            Joan Borysenko says that “gratitude is like a gearshift that can move your mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from rigidity to creativity, from fear to love.” Sowing gratitude is consciously directing your thinking and resisting the call to join the naysayers. Practicing gratitude is part of the mindfulness exercise I use. When I notice the swirl of stress, tension, fear, and anxiety building within me, I pause and look around me. I take a breath and BE thankful for what I see. I am immediately rescued from the regrets of the past or the worries about the future to experience the calm, peace of the present moment. I live, I move, I have my being in God’s grace. I am thankful. I am grateful for the abundance of good in all forms flowing though my life. And so it is.

 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

            In the beginning, there were only thirteen original Christians, although they did not call themselves such; thirteen people who knew they were connected with the higher power of God. Those thirteen changed the entire world to the way it is today. These men, as you know, were ordinary men like us. They had doubts and perhaps more failings than you have ever dreamed of having. But they were un-ordinary in one major way. They had an awareness of the Divine power that was with them. This is the most valuable and powerful thing we can have – the knowledge and experience of our connection to Source.

            Richard Bach said this in his book Illusions: “You were never given a wish without the power to make it come true.” Our wishes and dreams, the way we dreamed that life would be, we have the power, inside of us all to make them come true. We have the power of the Unlimited, All Knowing, and Everpresent Possibility within each of us to make anything in our life become a reality.

            In the Book of Genesis it’s written: “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.” NOWHERE In the BIBLE DOES IT SAY MAN WOKE UP. We are still asleep. We are asleep to who we are and what abilities we have to co-create the world we envision, the world we dream of and pray for. Now is the time to awaken – to become aware that we are aware. This is the time for our spiritual awakening. We can be that small group of committed thoughtful people who change the world.

            In Robert Brumet’s book, Birthing a Greater Reality, he points out that as we look at the development of the human form we can see that over time, our evolution has occurred at the intellectual rather than physical level. We have learned to adapt by creating physical things – clothing, housing, technology – rather than fur covered bodies, sharper teeth and claws, etc. as animals have done. Rather than adapting to the natural world through biological evolution, we have evolved a brain which gives us the ability to create internal virtual worlds. When environmental conditions change, we can readily adapt. And this way of adapting has done us well. We have mastered living in many different climes – deserts, forests, high altitudes – but our development has been dangerously one-sided. We are out of balance with nature and with ourselves too.

            Our human mind has evolved from a useful tool, from being our servant, to being our master. We have failed to parallel our external development with growth in self- awareness. Waking up, becoming aware is necessary for us to survive. Evolution is calling us to awaken but we have identified with our survival strategies and we remain asleep. You can hear that conflict all around you in the world today – the force for change in thinking, beliefs and the resistance to changing the values, beliefs, ways of doing life.

Our survival is at risk, but in a way this is good news, for necessity is what drives evolution.

            Something is keeping us asleep. What is it? It is our mistaken identity with who we are. Our mind set, our consciousness, the way we think and relate to others must evolve, for the same mind set that created the problem cannot solve it. We must find the solution at a different level of consciousness.

            There is a movement going within our civilization today, a small but mighty awareness is expanding and we in Unity are part of it. We can be a part of that small group of thoughtful, committed people who can change the world. We can sow the seeds of a deeper, higher awareness of who and what we are. We can sow these seeds and allow the evolutionary process to unfold. We can keep on spreading love, peace, compassion for all people and trust the process to do its thing in perfect order.

            Let us be the real and authentic person we were meant to be. Let us be shining examples of the Christ light and hold high that light to shine for others. Let us be the change we want in the world.

Prayer is not so much what you ask for, as how you prepare for its reception… The only condition required is that you believe that your prayers are already realized. - Neville

                        One of my favorite Old Testament stories is of Abraham, considered the Patriarch of three major faiths – Judaism, Islam and Christianity, making a covenant with God and for this being granted the land, all that he could see, for all his descendants. (Thus now it’s called the Promised Land). Metaphysically I interpret this to mean that God gives to us, when we follow the Law, all that we can see. If we can see it, imagine it, envision it – it is ours. Charles Fillmore wrote, “Only when man becomes conscious of who and what he is can he exercise his God-given dominion and bring his life into line with the principle of divine order, which is mind, idea, and manifestation.” From the Mind of the All That Is, God, Divine Spirit come forth ideas that when we act upon them manifest into the physical realm. That is the Law.

            Physicists agree. They point out that we live in a participatory universe. We are part of a universe that is a work in progress. We are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself and building itself. It is though our consciousness that we create our lives. The very act of looking puts something there for us to see. The anticipation of consciousness, expecting to see something and feeling that something is there to see, is the act that creates!

            Quantum physicists say there is a field of energy, a matrix of all matter. It acts as a great magnet constantly pulling us toward one another and connecting us to another and to all of life. It is sometimes described as a tightly woven web that makes up the underlying fabric of creation. Charles Fillmore referred to this as the substance underlying all that is manifest in life. It is from this substance that we bring forth that which we focus upon. When we look at the seeming space between one thing and another, thinking it is empty, the Field is there. What happens in one part of the world impacts all parts, for there is this web connecting all life.

            Prayer is a powerful creative force and there is actually a technology for having it work effectively. When we pray asking for something it appears we lack, praying for something to happen, we are giving power to what we don’t have. Prayers for healing empower the sickness. Prayers for prosperity empower the poverty. Prayers for rain empower the drought. Continuing to ask for these things only gives more power to the things that we would like to change. If we pray for something to happen, while feeling it’s missing or lacking, or that it’s unlikely or impossible to happen, we may actually be denying ourselves the very blessings we hoped to create. We are the poverty of our lives. When we come from lack; we have lack; it is all we see. Life is a mirror of what we’ve become within. So effective prayer is not about pleading for God’s favor; it is about claiming your good. God cannot lift you out of the gutter. Your in-the-gutter consciousness is your self definition. The opportunity is to redefine yourself as a powerful co-creator instead of a victim of circumstances beyond your control.

            In 1854, Chief Seattle warned of how the destruction of our wilderness had implications that would reach far beyond the current time and threaten the survival of future generations. With a profound wisdom he said, “Man did not weave the web of life – he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

            We live in interesting times. Much of what we have relied on socially, politically, economically, and spiritually is breaking down. In these times we need the capacity to access the fullness of our spiritual resources and that is what our Unity of Vermont spiritual community offers. We are about supporting each other in co-creating transformation in ourselves and in the world. And so it is and so it is.

            Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”  It is not the things that happen to us but the thoughts we have about them that imprison us. We all know people who have had horrible things happen to them and yet rise above them to succeed. We know of people who have been told they will never achieve their dreams and then prove the naysayers wrong. And we also know people whose low self-esteem and fear keeps them from being, doing and having what they dream of. What gift did these heroes have? How can we tap into this power too? How can we free ourselves from our limiting thinking and achieve freedom from the bondage of our minds?

             There is pain in life but suffering is optional. We do have painful things happen to us. No matter how good you are and how unblemished your life is, difficult events do happen. Bad things do happen to good people. But we don’t have to suffer from them. We can experience the pain and the loss but we don’t have to suffer. We have the freedom to choose how we’ll get through them without the suffering. We can choose to experience the pain and comfort ourselves for the loss or we can suffer through it all.

            What I notice is that most of our suffering comes from our thoughts about what has happened. Our attitudes, judgments, beliefs about what has happened cause our greatest suffering. For instance when my girl friend’s mother died she suffered for months afterward mostly from her own guilt – thoughts she had about what a dutiful daughter would have done and blaming herself for not doing more. When she changed her thinking and saw that she was doing the best she could, balancing her life – her marriage, children, job, and caring for her mother, her suffering ceased. 

            Unity co-founder Myrtle Fillmore had been taught since childhood that she had inherited the family disease of tuberculosis. She had grown up as an invalid, not able to explore and play outside. Later as an adult she attended a lecture where she heard these words that changed her life, “You are a child of God and do not inherit sickness” She saw clearly how her belief in this illness had shaped her life and she chose to change her beliefs. Now changing your beliefs may not be enough to cause the shift to wholeness. It often requires a disciplined practice of affirmations, forgiveness and prayer work. And this is what Myrtle did – daily she went though her body in her mind. She talked to her cells, organs, bones and the very fiber of her physical being, asking forgiveness and thanking them for supporting her though all the many days of her life and over time she was healed.

            Our thoughts are powerful and we create our experiences by what we choose to think and by what we feel and believe. This is one of the fundamental metaphysical laws of the universe, the Law of Attraction, the Law of Mind Action. What we believe colors the way life is for us. Jesus said it this way, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.” Our beliefs, the lens we look at life through, determine how our life is. If we live from the realm of possibility with the understanding that all things are possible, life will be very different than if we see life as hopelessly stacked against us.

            In the Gospel of Luke we read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me … to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed …” Let us proclaim freedom from the thinking, the beliefs, and behaviors that imprison us. Let us shed a new light and understanding of how life can be – recover our sight – see our life from a higher perspective. Let us have freedom ring

          One of my favorite movies is the “Razor’s Edge” based on the Somerset Maugham book of the same name. The title is taken from a verse in the Katha-Upanishad, “Rise, awaken, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor …” I interpret this verse to mean that the awakened life is one of paradox, to be in the world simultaneously human and spiritual, and it’s a tricky one, often difficult and messy.

            In the movie our hero focuses on finding the meaning of life and his purpose. Sound familiar? Isn’t that what so many of us are doing? The young man studies many sacred texts and even goes to India and spends time in a monastery high in the Himalayas. The high point of the movie for me is when he goes on a vision quest alone to a remote cabin at the top of a peak. He has the Sherpas carry provisions up there for him including lots and lots of books. (He is really serious about attaining enlightenment!)  Of course winter sets in, there’s a blizzard and he’s trapped up there, unable to go back down the mountain. He burns all the wood stored there, then breaks up the furniture and burns it to stay warm and finally starts tearing up his treasured books and burning them. In the midst of this experience, he gets it! His enlightenment comes in a roar of laughter and joy – oh the irony of life!

            Being powerful, creative spiritual beings requires us to balance both the spiritual and the physical realms, to walk this razor’s edge of being in the physical world of needs and all the challenges that come from them, with the greater awareness of our unlimited spiritual nature. In the world of everyday – ness there are limits, there are facts with studies that prove them infallible. In the formless realm – the Allness, the universal field of all possibility there are no limits to what we can create. In fact our only limits are what we cannot imagine.

            No where but in area of our prosperity does this paradox of being both spiritual and human surface and allow us to walk that razor’s edge. From our human perspective it appears that there is a finite amount of money and if some of us have it, others will suffer from the lack of it. It looks like there is only so much to go around. And yet if we can just for a moment look at what has been created recently that has yielded millionaires, (setting aside your opinions of right and wrong) social networks like Facebook and financial derivatives are two examples of some things of value created out of thin air, out of someone’s imagination. These are examples of the divine principle of prosperity. We manifest in the physical world from the underlying infinite supply of substance in the spiritual realm. We know there is no shortage or limit to the creative flow of prosperous solutions to what is before us. When we use it, we all will be the richer for it.

            Charles Fillmore, Unity’s co-founder, said in his book, Prosperity, “The more conscious you become of the presence of the living substance, the more of it will manifest itself for you and the richer will be the common good of all… It is purely spiritual and can be apprehended only by the mind. It is never visible to the eye, nor can it be sensed by man…God does not give us material things but Mind substance – not money, but ideas. Ideas set spiritual forces in motion so that things can come to us by the application of the law.”

            Substance, this underlying stuff from which all that is manifest is created, is another aspect of God or Spirit, much like Love or Wisdom, or Divine Intelligence are. Concerning love and wisdom and intelligence we have no doubt that there is no limit to how much of them there is. There is an infinite supply. I can love, love, love and it will not take away from the amount of love for others to give and receive. The same with wisdom and intelligence and health: there is an infinite supply of all this. Plenty to give and plenty to receive.  We can even go around lavishly spreading it wherever we go. We can waste it in wild abandon! BUT when it comes to prosperity it’s another story. Silly us! Truly dear ones, there is no limit to what God will provide. We are the only ones who limit our good by our limiting beliefs in what is possible, what we deserve and how the world is. We can open our eyes to the bounty all around us and say, Thank you. I accept!

            Everyday we are told of another upsetting event in the world – floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, revolutions, high gas prices, and financial troubles. There is a lot to concern us and it’s no wonder we’re scared and angry and frustrated. It is as if there is this dark cloud of despair covering all of us. Just as soon as a clearing appears on the horizon another storm blows in and again we’re vigilantly alert to ward off this new calamity. So many of us, our neighbors and friends tell us how powerless and at loose ends they feel.   Many ask how can we maintain calm and remain peaceful in the midst of the turmoil all around us. This is the true challenge of a spiritual being, perhaps better called a spiritual warrior because it’s not an easy undertaking. With a smile just for a moment imagine each of us getting ready for the day, girding up our loins so to speak, as we embark from our inner sanctuary, prayed up and ready to hold high the light of Love, Truth, Faith and Divine Order. Our mission – we have chosen to accept it of course, shall be to BE the Light of Spirit showing the Way, smoothing the path and being LOVE to all.

            A friend told me yesterday that the banks around her house on the lake are in danger of eroding away. Some of the banks have already fallen in. The lake’s water levels have been rising past flood stage and she was worried. She called Silent Unity several days ago and asked for prayer. Then the next day she watched as a log floated up and nestled into the bank, helping to support the bank and all the plants on it. She felt her prayers were answered.

            We here at Unity in Vermont shall hold the high watch to all who come our way. We shall smile and say something kind and loving, maybe rejoicing in the day or maybe we’ll say nothing and just listen as we send waves of LOVE attentively. For we know that when we focus on what we want, we draw it to us; when we raise our vibrations, we draw to us that which is a match. When we are happy, we draw happy situations to us and when situations aren’t happy, we can bring our uplifted awareness to them. We can be there for all who hunger for calm and peace no matter the dark clouds around them. I invite you to hold the High Watch with us. We shall be a beacon of Love, Peace and Joy.

       There’s a fable of an Emperor who told his loyal knight that in appreciation he would be given as much land as he could cover on horseback. The horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land as he could.  He kept on riding and riding for hours and then days, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry, thirsty or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much land as possible. He came to a point when he had covered a huge area; he was exhausted; he was dying. On his last breath he asked himself, “Why did I push myself so hard for all this?  Now I am dying and I only need a six feet to bury myself.”

         In moments of reflection we may notice we live an unbalanced life, unconsciously and unaware. We live as if we’ll live forever or least for many, many more years. We put off doing the things we have always wanted to do. We catch ourselves thinking there will be plenty of time to be with the people we really love, filling our days with stuff that will get us ready to be, do and have the important things later – later when we’ve got it all worked out and we’re all put together.

         When disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, cancer diagnosis, and other life changing events suddenly befall us, we realize what we’ve missed. People who have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses report that after the truth and reality of their approaching death has settled in, they begin to examine their life, what they had hoped for and what they’ve achieved. What they see then is what they will never have the chance to do and what is most important now, and then choose how they will live in the time remaining. Rarely if ever do they say, I wished I’d spent more time at the office or kept the house cleaner. They are more apt to say, I wish I’d been kinder. I wish I’d spent more time with my family.

         We know of course that death is a part of life, that life and death are two sides of one coin. We can imagine that being close to death has us be more vitally alive and aware of the precious poignant moments of everyday life. We savor every breath and take in the wonder and beauty around us. There is a Native American saying, “Today is a good day to die!” The point being that if we live this day as if it was our last day, how much richer would be the experience? Instead of trying to avoid death, we could choose to be fully alive. For in the resisting pain, loss, grief and separation we are already as good as dead.

         In reflecting on our lives it’s important to let go of what we can’t change, and make amends for our mistakes, forgive and release the past. We often say, “Let Go and Let God” A better phrase might be, “Let it be.”  As we allow what is to be, it works itself out and often in ways we could not imagine.

         This winter I was worried that the heavy snows would break my young birch tree. I watched from my window during a blizzard. The tree was already bent over with the weight and more snow was falling. I thought I should go out through the drifts and shake off the snow. I thought of how awful a tree snapped off near the base would look and the cost of replacing this precious tree. Then as I watched, one last snowflake fell upon it and the tree shed all the snow and straightened up. 

         Right now be still and silently ask yourself, if I had but a few months to live what would I do?

         Can you imagine that if this was true how your days would be filled with only the important things?

         If I had but a few months to live it probably wouldn’t matter if I stopped the car to watch the geese flying by or went out late at night to watch the full moon or played in the dirt. If I had just a little while left on earth, I wouldn’t care too much about looking stupid or naïve or doing embarrassing things. How would you BE in the last few days of your life knowing that you would die?

         In the silence we ask ourselves what did I come here to do and how will I be in the days remaining to me? What will I release, allow just to be and what will I change? In the time I have left on earth what brings me beauty and peace? What do I want to be remembered for by the people I leave behind? That’s how I shall live!

         I just came back from a journey home after six years away and it was a transformational, healing adventure.  It was an opportunity to put my spiritual practices at work, accepting, allowing and being present in the midst of a flurry of activity.  One of the things I noticed is that the idea that we have of who someone is, their attitudes, personality and characteristics is often stuck in the past, inflexible and fixed for all time.  A decision we make about who each of our beloveds is, fits nicely into a neat and tidy box. There is no room for any spiritual evolution, growth and maturity.  People are who we said they are back then and that’s the way it is.  Period.  End of conversation.  Knowing this about my loved ones and me too allows for loving compassion and kindness, for gently updating and being in the present with an internal conversation, judgment and evaluation going on beneath the surface of our interactions.

         There is a German folktale about a man whose ax was missing.  He suspected that his neighbor’s son had taken it.  He was a lazy boy and looked like a thief.  He walked like a thief; he talked like a thief.  But then one day the man found his ax while digging in the field.  The next time he saw his neighbor’s son the boy was industrious and helpful, and he walked and talked like any other boy.

         What happened to this man is what happens with us all too often.  We act on our assumptions and judgments as if they were fact and proceed with this “truth” before us in all our interactions.  We see the people and events in the world through the colored lens of our beliefs.  When we can step back and look with clear vision, we see other possibilities. And in an instant our reality and our relationships are transformed.

         One of the most important philosophical questions that humanity has wrestled with for centuries is Who Are We?  Who am I?  Are we spirit, are we flesh?  What is the core of my being, the true nature of my being? Am I so shaped by my heredity, genes, DNA, and by my life experiences that I cannot change, develop and choose a new path? Is my path etched in stone and predetermined for all time or is there flexibility and freedom to choose at all times?

         In Zen monasteries there are many tasks to be filled to run the order efficiently and the students are given these roles as a part of their practice of discovering wholeness. There is the cook, the gardener, the keeper of discipline, the librarian, the maintenance person, etc. The students are assigned these roles for a year or two so that they come to know themselves in that role.  As the cook the student may see himself as the nurturing presence preparing the meals with great care and reverence.  The keeper of discipline may be called upon to awaken the sleepy students and correct those who are lazy in their practice.  The roles will then shift and the cook may now become the person who cleans the toilets and then the gardener. From being at the hub of activity, the student’s task will shift to a solitary one. And so one’s sense of self remains flexible. Thus the roles that we play remind us of the impermanence of life and that change is part of being human.

         I have experienced that we do change; we can become more of the perfect being we were designed to be.  As we practice holding to our vision of what is possible and focus our attention there, we can bring forth what it is that we want and who we want to be.  We can be the loving force for change in the world.  And we can change our perception of who the people are in our lives.  We can see their words and actions from a new prospective – from the prospective of a strategy they adopted to get them through tough situations.  We can give our selves and every one of our beloveds some slack, relaxing and enjoying our time together. Then truly we have come home again.

            From a broad prospective of our human history we like being scared. In the past we liked watching scary things like public executions and gladiator events, and now it’s boxing, wrestling, professional football, hockey, video games, and violence on TV and movies. Our media vies for the scariest headliners to drive up the public’s attention. Being scared brings up the ratings. As a people we are adrenaline junkies.

            There’s a great horror film, The Fly, about a brilliant but eccentric scientist who is experimenting with teleportation. Naturally the experiments begin to go wrong, and before long he starts turning into a huge and scary insect. When he pleads with one of the characters not to be afraid, the reporter working on the story contradicts him with what has now become a classic line: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

     In the movie this is humorous; today it well describes the contemporary cultural mood. Constantly we are told to be afraid, to be very afraid. You could even say that we are now afraid of not being afraid. “Be very afraid!” has become the motto of the political parties – what will happen if one or the other is in control of the government. Now there are things to be concerned about, very concerned about, but when you compare our lives with our ancestors, we are safer than we have ever been. When we look at the stories of floods, famine, slavery, plagues, war and exile in the Bible, life was “poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” And yet what is the refrain that you hear again and again throughout the Bible? “Do not be afraid.” In the midst of these fears and dangers, “Be still and know that I am there. I am with you,” says the Lord, “I am with you!”

     In the midst of our fear we are to draw upon our faith that God is ever present; we are not alone. For as our fear tightens us up, we close down, we retreat and attempt to protect ourselves, or flee from the danger – the fight or flight instinct. In our fear, we shut ourselves off from any creative solutions. We separate ourselves from the Allness, the Oneness where we know that there is only good and we are divinely protected. BUT Faith is fearless, because faith trusts in God, the ever-present source of all that is and will be. That is the gift and privilege of being alive today, to be consciously awake and aware. And no one and no thing can take that away from us. How can I be afraid when I am the beloved expression of a loving Creator?

     Faith is our ability to commit ourselves totally to spiritual truth. It empowers us to see the good even in appearances to the contrary. It is the power to move unseen good into manifestation. Charles Fillmore said faith is “the perceiving power of the mind linked with the power to shape substance.” This definition explains how faith works to manifest the ideas we are focused upon. From the underlying field of all possibility, the substance from which all is manifest, as we focus, as we tap into this power of faith, we bring forth that which we desire. That is how it works.

     There is a tale of a visiting monk, a referred spiritual teacher, who was being guided to the temple by two young initiates. As they approached the gate to the temple, the huge snarling dog that guarded the gate broke its chain and came rushing toward the monk and his guides. In fear, the young men fled from the dog. But what did the monk do? He ran toward the mad dog and the dog turned and fled from him.

     So it is for us. When we calmly turn toward those things that scare us most and face them awake and aware, we gather the strength and the resources to solve them. For our minds are always connected to that creative ability to bring forth the perfect solution, but our fear closes us off from Source. When we relax in even the scariest situations and breathe in calmness, we open ourselves to the power of Divine Wisdom. When we shine our light, this Divine Light into the darkness, we see the truth of what lies before us and from this place we can bring forth perfect solutions. And so it is and so it is.