Right Now Right Here … (to mess with Michael’s lyrics) is for me a most definite time of change. Handing over responsibilities attached to being President of two Boards and catching up on the personal responsibilities I seem to have blithely ignored for too long a period of time, I find myself trying to smoothly transition some exits and begin the process of re-configuring what I do on a daily basis.

Call in the big power – Pulling out my dog-eared, heavily underlined copy of A NEW DESIGN FOR LIVING by Ernest Holmes – edited by Willis Kinnear.

To start with the blessing I invoke every morning:

“Something new and wonderful comes into my experience today. Today I bless everything I touch and am prospered in everything I do. Today nothing but love and good goes forth from me, therefore nothing else can possibly return. Today, this day, I am happy and whole. A New Design page 131.

Some mornings it takes 2 or 3 repeats to get there, but it supplies a spark to start the day.

Along with Dr. Holmes’ provocative, inspiring text extra good is provided by the inclusion of quotations from several remarkable leaders. “We are potentially all things; our personality is what we are able to realize of the infinite wealth which our divine human nature contains hidden it its depths.” W R Inge.

“We should never be afraid of change, never fearful of what will come. Instead we should bring to bear on each new event the influence of the creative nature of our thought—an influence that is founded on an inward calm, a sense of certainty and peace, which will reflect itself in the changing scene of our everyday lives. A NEW DESIGN page 55

“…We need to work at clearing away those thoughts, ideas, or concepts which appear to be barriers to the greater good we desire….break the confines of our own imprisonment, whether it be our own individual thinking or the limitations of the thinking of the world about us that we have accepted. No progress was ever made by the individual who was satisfied with the status quo. A NEW DESIGN page 46

Recalling the teaching that there is no ‘big or little’ but only what we can know as ours: thimble or tanker. We choose. Adding ‘this or something better’ makes possible more rather than less or staying with what we know.

“….It might be wise if we do not try to do a remodeling job on our life. …The design will get messed up and we will find ourselves using too much secondhand material which is of no particular value, and more often than not completely useless. Start new, start fresh. …wipe our minds free of the influence of all undesirable conditions….finding ourselves unhampered, unrestricted… designing a new set of conditions about us. A NEW DESIGN page 121.

And from Dr. Holmes Conclusion – this important reminder for me and anyone thinking a New Design: “… you are now on your own. ….If at first you don’t succeed, think, think again. A NEW DESIGN FOR LIVING page 239

–Spirit’s grace, energy and power to all who ‘design’. In Peace, Mariann