December E-Inspiration
Dec 05 2007

You Can't Burn The Candle At Both Ends
Aug 27 2007

Dealing With Anxiety
Aug 20 2007

Are You A Settler or a Pioneer?
Aug 13 2007

Finding Your Heart’s Desire
Aug 06 2007

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In the Presence of the Divinity, a confidence builds within us that all is coming right in our world. We sense that Health challenges are resolving, financial concerns are attracting the necessary funds, relationships are becoming smoother and more caring, personal goals are moving forward. Our every need is attracting its answer. The cause, the motivating factor is the Divine itself.

I talk with a lot of people who are experiencing overwhelming stress in their physical bodies and burn-out.  They come not knowing what is happening to them. We used to think only men experienced burn-out but we are seeing more and more women experiencing it as they try to juggle careers, homes and children.

“The exposed nest” in which a person is walking along and finds the nest on the ground. It has been dislodged from its place in the tree. There is a line in the poem in which the one who finds the bird’s nest says:

Howdy Pardners!  Today we are going to visit the church of the Wild Wild West, or maybe it’s the church of Bethel in the East.  That will be up to you to decide.

Attachments can create unnecessary suffering and anxiety and keep us joyless because there is never enough of what we crave.

Yikes! No wonder we’ve had such a time overcoming our human limitations. God doesn’t want us to. Bologna!

I read an article some time ago about a gorilla who had been taught sign language. This ape had made a major leap in consciousness. She expressed feelings of love to her teacher, and her pet kitten.

Here's a cute story to help us forget the blistering July heat:

Lois was born in January so she was too young to remember the first couple of winters in Cleveland. However, when she was three years old (you know, that age when you feel that your parents could, and would, do anything for you) she awoke to see that a blanket of snow had covered her world while she was asleep. This was the first time she had seen snow.

A general of the Persian army always gave his condemned prisoners a choice, the firing squad or the black door. Most chose the firing squad. The prisoners were never told what was on the other side of the door. Few ever chose the unknown of the black door. When asked what was on the other side of the black door, the general answered. “Freedom, and I’ve known only a few men brave enough to take it.”

The first time I recognized the sacred in myself was when I attended a workshop with Ken Keys, the author of  Handbook to Higher Consciousness.  After several days, of great emotional releasing, I became aware of the sacredness of life. I went home a transformed person. I tried to convey the wonder of what I was feeling and transform everyone as I had been transformed.

We’ve already talked about visualization. This week I'm talking about visioning. You may be wondering what the difference is between visioning and visualization?

As a child growing up in a small midwestern city, not far at all from its surrounding fields, rivers, and forests; nature was always presenting itself as a teacher and a way of life. There was no way to avoid it and I explored it with passion and excitement. I learned that in many subtle formats, the animals, insects, both floral and fauna alike, formed a model for living. A model that was less than ideal for an unfolding human being.

In the spirit of Fathers’ Day, I though you might like to know how Father’s Day started.

by: Barbara Smith

Life is the Ultimate Mystery Tour.  I am intrigued with mysteries. From the time I was a young woman and a librarian began foisting them on me, I have loved a mystery.  Perhaps that is why I find religion and life so fascinating. It is a mystery.

It seems as if every Memorial Day, there is a question that comes to me – Is it possible for those who are gone to make contributions to the lives of those who are living?

WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.

Back in the1980’s there was a movement that advocated expressing the negative emotions we were experiencing. The anger, we were told, needed to come out. There were various methods recommended to do this including the primal scream and yelling in your car...

Happy Mother’s Day

I’d like to tell you a story today about a mother and daughter. It isn’t a traditional mother/daughter story because Naomi was the mother-in-law and the daughter was named Ruth. Ruth is a very important woman in the Bible.

Some food for thought on the topic of FAITH.

Why are we here? What have we come here to do?

What do you want in life? Good relationships, good health, plenty of money to have and do the things you want? Do you want to make a difference? Do you want to see the world becoming a better place?

Have you ever had a cape? One that's large enough to hide in? One that's so comfortable you never want to take it off? One that's wrapped so tightly around your soul it prevents anyone from reaching your heart? - Including the Savior? I did.

Let me tell you my friend the story of how Jesus removed my cape and how I came to believe.

Achievement and happiness begin with self-esteem

I’d like to talk about some principles that will help you develop more self-esteem and self confidence.

At Easter time we celebrate that Jesus lives; the spirit of overcoming; the ability within us to rise up and meet situations, to learn the things we need to learn, and experience a new kind of birth. We have that power within us.

When you struggle with conditions that challenge or threaten you, you invariably reinforce their presence in your life.

Today, I intend to tell you three things. One, how we can get ourselves into a rut, how we can examine our values to see where we got into the rut, and three how to move into possibilities and success.

I recently read an article about positive thinking and I thought it was a wonderful article about how positive thinking and happiness go hand in hand. Then I got to the last few paragraphs of the article, which in essence said, positive thinking was a selfish way of getting things we want and happiness can only come by fearing God and doing penitence. I about went into shock and awe that people still think that way. When I recovered I remembered:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great places!
You’re off and away!

The Art of Loving – Part III

Since you all enjoyed them so much, here are the last of my LOVE snippets:

The Art of Loving – Part II

I received such great feedback from last week’s snippets on LOVE, I thought I’d share a few more with you:

Happy Valentine's Day!

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to share a few light-hearted thoughts on the subject of LOVE.

I can't get no satisfaction.
Who would have ever thought that an ancient, 35+ year-old Rolling Stones song would become the consumer and business mantra of the late Twentieth Century?

Today I’d like to share with you an exercise in centering adapted from Centering by Laurie and Tucker

Begin by closing your eyes, close your mouth and breathe only through your nose.

Lois was born in January so she was too young to remember the first couple of winters in Cleveland. However, when she was three years old (you know, that age when you feel that your parents could, and would, do anything for you) she awoke to see that a blanket of snow had covered her world while she was asleep. This was the first time she had seen snow.

I was reading a book of children’s prayers the other day, and it seemed like many of them involved the family and love in one way or another.

Two weeks ago, we talked about Jesus' command for us to become like children. With this in mind, I thought I'd share some child-like wisdom with you.

In a preschool class, the teacher was reading the story of Jesus’ birth to her day-care center children. She stopped to see if they understood and asked, “What do we call the three wise men?”  “The three maggots,” replied a bright five year old. “What gift did the magi bring baby Jesus?” she corrected. “Gold, Frankenstein, and Smurfs!” the same 5 year old replied.

The Nativity story is told only in two books in the New Testament. In Luke and in Matthew. As you read the book of Luke you will notice it was written for the gentiles, while the book of Matthew is written for the Jews.

Let’s play Jeopardy. The category is LIGHT. I will give the answer. You provide the question.

“To make friends with the dark is to cultivate faith and hope.” Felice Holman

This article is about hope, but more than just hope, it is about directing your life, getting guidance, changing perception.

Each year, the traditional Christmas story stirs me as it does believers and some unbelievers alike, not only because it celebrates the birth of the Christ Child—the baby who grew into the man whose life and teachings changed the course of history and shaped the mind and culture of the Western world—but also because it appeals to the very depths of my being.

Believe it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. Did I hear you groan? It seems as if so many of us find ourselves in stressful Christmas situations year after year.

The Preacher placed two identical jars on the table next to the pulpit. And quoted I Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. A human looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

An optimistic minister had the habit in his opening prayer each Sunday of thanking God for the weather. On a particularly cold, icy, windy, slushy Sunday morning, the few people who had ventured out wondered how the minister could possibly refer to the weather in his morning prayer with any sense of gratitude. To their surprise, he said in the beginning of his prayer:

"Dear God, we thank Thee that Thou dost send us so few Sundays like today."

Recently I was shocked to hear that some young people had zapped a homeless person with a stun gun. I was listening to a talk show on public radio where they were talking about legislation and rules to control these guns. As I listened I though what is the real problem here? Do we really need more legislation?

Halloween always makes me think of the witch inside of me. We all have a witch inside of us. I certainly do and sometimes she can be very useful. However, I can usually keep her under control because I know she is there. She's not a pretty sight, but she has lots of energy. There are times when she can really get things done.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we looked at life as an adventure? To know we’re never lost, just exploring? . If when we came to the end of our days, there would be nothing left over that we wish we had done?

“Growth and evolution are part of the Divine Plan. Since the beginning of time, Spirit has been unfolding Itself into greater and greater expression. Because Spirit is the essence and substance of all that exists, everything in the universe is engaged in a continual process of evolution into a higher order and state of being. Spirit is joyously exploring its infinite potential by means of its creation.” D.O.R.

I have been reading about Gandhi and studying some of this material, and it’s apparent to me that Gandhi’s power to move people and governments was not from an elaborate plan to gain control of anything or destroy anything. I don’t believe that was what he was looking at all. I’m not sure that he ever even sat down and said, “Okay, take on the British Empire, and free the people. It didn’t start out that way What I think he did was he followed the truth of his heart and he had undivided singleness of mind. He had a steady mind, and that is the key to life. If you want the key to life, that’s it: A steady mind.

We are in an evolutionary process. Barbara Marx Hubbard, in the book, Evolutionary Journey says, "In retrospect, we may not even remember what it felt like to be in the prison of the self-concentration camp. We have endured the pain of feeling separate, unrelated to each other and to the universal process as a time of learning and preparation for the next phase, to take our rightful place in universal affairs as young co-creators. We have been to the school of Homo sapiens for Thousands of years, and are about to graduate to the next class of being--Homo universalis."

A Sunday school teacher, a construction worker by trade, was trying to teach a group of young boys about turning the other cheek. “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." 

One of the boys in the class asked: “Suppose a boy hits me on the right cheek and I turn the other cheek. If he hits me on the left cheek, then what do I do?"

Two feelings are fundamental to attracting abundance into your life:
one is gratitude, the other is self appreciation.

With all the violence going on today we may feel the study of nonviolence to be futile. As we look at the life of Gandhi we see with God all things are possible. When we think of nonviolence we usually think of simply a physical act when in fact it is emotional and psychological as well. It means no passive violence. It is a spiritual act as well. Gandhi was looking for a word that better described the limited word, nonviolence. He came up with the Sanskrit word ahimsa. According to Gandhi meant love, an absence of violence.

Adventures In Living

Life is an adventure and faith is the first step in living a life of adventure. Now when I say adventure, I’m not necessarily talking about stepping in a lions cage or bungee jumping or hang gliding.

I want to share a true story with you:

A man drove his big, black, luxury limousine into a neighborhood where he ordinarily did not drive. He was visiting someone, so he parked his luxury limousine by the side of the curb, and went into a house to visit, with a gentleman he had not seen for quite some time.

by: Barbara Smith

When I was a little girl I loved to dance. My friend’s mother decided it would be fun to teach us the Jitterbug. I was really having a good time when my parents saw me and said to stop showing off.

What do the Buddhist, the Buddhist priests, ministers, Cahoonas, rabbi’s, witch doctors, shamans, medicine men, guides, and biofeedback technicians have in common? All have entered into the world of meditation. The processes, the words, the sounds are very different, but they all have one goal, that idea of oneness with God. Unity calls that goal, The Silence. We have also named the process that we use, The Silence. You might call the goal Christ Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Ground of Being, Enlightenment, Samadhi, Satori, the Real Self, Universal Reality, Allah a, or just God.

"There are allergic thoughts that are just as disruptive to people’s health as any natural agent, perhaps more so."
Rev. Stan Smith, M.A.

Many people have suffered months or years of negative, energy-draining life challenges without ever suspecting that the basis of those problems was no further removed than their own inner awareness and consciousness. Such individuals can be said to be sleepwalking through life due to no fault of their own. From childhood to adulthood these individuals have been taught that what happens to them comes from the outer world. A world of germs, dust, drug reactions, allergens and other people are thought to infect the helpless with all kinds of disturbing conditions and reactions.

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