Author: CSLT-Faces

Stars and Dirt

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Our Center is changing; it is growing, empowered by the intentions and work of each person making up our community. At the start of each new year we celebrate our opportunities for growth and change by participating in a Community Intention Setting, (previously called a Community Envisioning). This year our event is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 2nd and 3rd at the Center’s office. On Friday night a potluck is planned to kick off the event and on Saturday we will begin at 9:30am, work through the morning with a brown bag lunch, ending at 2:00. This year is extra special because we will ground our intentions after the meeting with a Property Blessing at our land on 22nd Street at 3:00 on Saturday.

As Reverend Janis explained last Sunday, we employ both rational and intuitive methods in articulating our goals. We use our rational thought to figure out who we want to be as CSLT. We also vision about the highest ideal for CSLT to catch thoughts from the One Mind within each of us. But there are even more parts to successful Intention setting which track the process of manifestation illustrated by our Science of Mind teaching symbol “V”.

When I was trying to figure out how to write this, a memory came to me about something that happened in my life that I had not thought about in decades. The story is a useful analogy. Back when I was at the U of A, I took an elective class in Astronomy. I got very excited when the professor announced that the student with the highest grade at the end of the class would get to view the planets through the University’s telescope on Kitt Peak. I wanted that opportunity so I decided at that moment that I was going to be that student. I had set my intention, and at the end of the semester I was the student who won the trip.

Likewise, we at CSLT desire a permanent home and in 2016 we purchased land on 22nd street to begin fulfillment of that intention. But that is only the beginning of the adventure of manifestation. As my story continued, I learned that winning the opportunity to see the planets still required me to get to the top of Kitt Peak. The “how” of getting up the mountain turned out to be both scary and thrilling and largely out of my control. I learned I had to ride with a grad student in a dilapidated state car up the curving mountain road on a moonless night without benefit of headlights. This was to avoid light pollution for the telescope. I never wavered in my belief that I would somehow safely traverse the switchbacks to the top of mountain because I could see that telescope in my mind’s eye. I had what Holmes calls a mental equivalent of my desire. Similarly, we at CSLT have a desire to occupy our new land with expansive dreams to set firmly into our vision as a mental equivalent. This is where faith plays a role, for we must believe that our intentions, like seeds, will grow fruit. We must believe in our final success and let Law figure out the “how”.

I did see Mars up close and personal that night on Kitt Peak, and in looking through that huge telescope I was inspired by the endless expanse of space. It awakened in me a thirst to explore and expand. I was ready to set a new intention but first I had to descend the mountain again in the darkness, car brakes squealing, to return to the level desert floor. I had to assimilate the experience into my life.

Likewise, we as CSLT develop our intentions about using our land to grow our community and then we implement our vision. The old saying goes “faith without works is dead”. Our success as a Center requires both faith and action. We will finish our intention setting Saturday afternoon and drive out to our new property. Our Land Blessing gives us each an opportunity to bring our personal intentions to the property and ground our experience there. We will implement our vision with action and go forward in this great endeavor.

I experience CSLT as a community without limits, as vast in potential as the Milky Way in the sky. I look forward to this Intention Setting event and I hope every CSLT congregant participates, as they are able, next weekend.

— Leah Hamilton, RScP (and Board Chair)

Introducing….

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I’ve been attending CSLT for two years now and its place in my life is amazingly huge. Raised Catholic – including Catholic school through the 8th grade – I eventually came to a deeply felt distrust of institutionalized religion.

A distrust deep enough to send me seeking through the usual list of alternatives:

  • Wicca — From which I learned great lessons I still live by
  • Zen — Is there a writer who speaks more sweetly and humorously to the soul than Pema Chodron?
  • Congregational Church — Briefly, when my late husband was active in the choir.

But there was nothing which brought about regular attendance or active participation until now, in Tucson, with CSLT. As with so many others I’ve found my spiritual home here and the beginnings of truly wonderful friendships.

One of the best lessons I’m studying here is to actually, finally let go of the belief that I must compensate somehow for all the “mistakes I’ve made”. That is — only after paying for them is it possible to move on.

Well, I’ve learned you can put those bags down, and decide to travel lighter.  Although some lessons aren’t exactly new news…

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy  not on fighting the old but on building the new.” — Socrates

Recognizing CSLT’s importance to me, I joined the Board officially in January. It’s a sweet challenge to imagine how we can grow this special place into a larger, “home-owning”, continually learning, life-enhancing, soul-strengthening community.

Or, as Dr. Holmes would have us remember:  “The one who dares to fling thought out into Universal Intelligence, with the assurance of one who realizes his divine nature and its relation to the Universe — and dares to claim all there is — will find an ever-creative good at hand to aid him, God will honor his request…. Let us, then, enlarge our thought processes, and dare to think in Universal terms. Let us dare to believe that every constructive word is invincible! ”   The Science of Mind 142.3

I, personally, am quite eager to see what beauty emerges as all of us together dream, nurture and build an ever-more-perfect CSLT.

And, I am so totally grateful that I got myself into my car and drove to CSLT that first time and every time since then.

— Mariann Moery

Connections

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I drove home a new way on Sunday after services and noticed the bright blue sign of a Napa Auto Parts Store. It was the first one I actually remember seeing in Tucson. Part of me doubted that it could possibly be the only one, so I googled it to see how many there are in town. One. There’s only one. Huh.

The reason it caught my eye, I think, is because my mom worked in one for nearly a decade while my brother attended the lower grades of public school. She was of the generation who fiercely believed that moms needed to be home when their kids got home from school, so she wanted a part-time job where she could do that. I never could figure out how my mom worked in an auto parts store, since her interest in car parts was negligible.   Honestly, it was non-existent.

As I pondered this, driving across town, what came to me was an awareness of what her expertise actually was. She was the undeniably, unstoppably, irreplaceably queen of customer service. People mattered to her. After my brother was old enough to drive himself home from football practice, my mom got a job working full-time at the photo lab on the airbase near where they lived. She served as the film librarian; her primary job was to interact with the customers and make sure they got exactly the service or the product they needed. People would stop by her desk all the time for hugs, and to take a piece of candy out of the candy dish on the corner of her desk that was always full. She kept that job for the next 40+ years and was still happily working when she became terminally ill; she could not imagine not being there to take care of ‘her people’.

I retired from my technical career at 52. She and I would often talk about how odd it was that her daughter retired before she did. I kept telling her that it was really obvious to me when it was time for me to stop working (at that job) and that she would know when it was time, and to retire any sooner would be silly. That seemed to satisfy her, mostly. There were times that she wished she could be a retired grandma and do the craft activities, the outings, or the book studies, with the old, retired ladies. When it got right down to it, she didn’t believe that she would feel as vital and alive if she didn’t have to answer to an alarm clock 5 days a week. So she kept doing what she loved – connecting with people.

There’s something about pleasant human interactions that adds brightness and liveliness to our days. Social scientists say we need a certain number of hugs each day to be emotionally healthy – four at a minimum. When I was working on last Wednesday night’s class on Mysticism, I was reminded that the need to connect with others is a basic human survival need. On Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it ranks just slightly above the need to feel safe, and just below the need to feel respected or esteemed.

“People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.” — James Baldwin

When I first saw this quote by James Baldwin, I thought of it as a negative commentary, but the more that I pondered the lifestyle that my mom chose, this idea remained quite valid and uplifting. She was the undisputed queen of making people feel important, no matter who, and no matter what. Even on Sundays and with the youth ministry at church, she was the first of the women to be given a plaque that read, “Mother of Our Youth”. I always thought the plaque was a little disconcerting, but it recognized the identity she had created for herself, and how she wanted to be seen in her world.

It seems I picked up just a smidge of that connecting mindset myself. I’m OK with that.

— Rev Janis

Epic Goodness

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We all know the premise of a Spiritual Mind Treatment is that One Universal Divine Intelligence flows through all people and nature.  It is my belief and faith of Oneness that bridges the past and the present events of my life together in unison.

For instance, as a teenager growing up in the 70s, one of my favorite Saturday morning television shows was Soul Train.  Soul Train featured a genre of R&B, Pop, Gospel songs and contemporary musical artists.  Recently, I discovered that the purpose of producing a mainstream musical television show that attracted so many teenagers as myself was to introduce music into the lives of all people.  The title “Soul Train” symbolizes music being transported by a train from one city to the next all over the world.

By first appearances, the singing, dancing and high-end fashion trends of Soul Train may have seemed superficial, but the truth of the matter is that watching Soul Train inspired me to become my creative best self.  Although I never considered myself musically inclined, my creativity developed in the originality of the clothes that I constructed first in the sight of my imagination and then into its final physical form.

This past New Year’s Eve while participating in the Ending and Beginnings Ceremony, I could not help thinking of the parallels between Soul Train and my readiness to walk over the threshold into a new year.  The Endings and Beginnings Ceremony is an annual CSLT tradition that I regard as a high esteem event that encompasses the entire community.  More importantly for me, the Ending and Beginnings Ceremony invoked an inner reflection and for a few brief seconds as I crossed the threshold into 2018, I felt a spark of my creative self come to life and in my inner ear I heard the words of the titled song “Love Train”, written by the O’Jays.  “People all over the world, join hands, start a love train.”

The teachings of Ernest Holmes advocates that we should look boldly expect our Infinite Good to manifest without hesitation.  In Its grandest expectations, I am ready and willing to receive my Good.  Flooded with the memories of a carefree teenager, I am grateful for the artistic value of music, dancing and creative fashion designs.

Divinely inspired in the Oneness of All, I accept my Epic Goodness in 2018!

So it is

–Carla Hodge, RScP

Birth of the Light

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Today I had the experience of awakening suddenly to the faint light of predawn in my room. My alarm had not rung but I was wide awake. Panic set in. What day was it? What time was it? Why didn’t the alarm ring? What was I supposed to be doing? Going to work? Attending Saturday court? Taking up Board or practitioner duties at CSLT? Just then the alarm rang, and I finally tumbled to the conclusion that it was Sunday and I was going to CSLT. My new day, however, was already marred by anxiety over things I needed to accomplish.

This is the season of the winter solstice, the rebirth of the sun. I considered the anxiety my forebears felt during the long winter nights wondering if they had preserved enough food, so the elders and children would survive until spring. The return of the sun at solstice was, for them, a literal celebration of life. In my life I may not depend literally upon the sun for my survival, but I asked whether I was celebrating my life day by day. Was I living from my core or was I simply “doing”?

With divine synchronicity, Rev. Janis’ reminder talk addressed this very topic. She spoke about how we can accept our own magnificence, acknowledge our light and find our own unique way of shining that light. Thinking back to my experience of the morning, I realized that I spend a lot of time stressing about things I should be doing and not a lot about just being present for my life. The things I stress about are not even necessarily things I chose for myself. Many times they are “shoulds” I inherited from other people and from that nasty bullying voice in my head that is always ready to berate me.

In her talk, Rev Janis asked, “how do we become self-aware?” How do we find our unique light and expression apart from the “shoulds”? She said the answer would be different for everyone. As I sat with the idea I realized the answer, for me, was self-love. I am very skilled at bullying myself about what I should be doing. I hide the ball from myself about what I want. I build defenses. In so doing, I shutter my own light. In a moment of radical acceptance, I broke open to my own lack of self-love. I saw a way to live more authentically.

My authentic Self wants to express It’s unique light. With a self-loving intention, I can be my own friend, be on my own side and tell the bullying voice in my head to shut up. Being there for myself I can discover who I am at my core and exercise sovereignty in my own life. I can be honest about what I want.

As a Practitioner, I already see the light in others with love. For these last long nights of winter, I am doing the same for myself. I hold my own hand, drop my barriers and defenses and walk open and unafraid into the light, my own and the light of the reborn sun.

— Leah Hamilton, RScP

Recycling, Eating Organic and New Thought

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I remember when the concept of recycling was new. I remember when the idea of eating organic food was uncommon. It wasn’t so long ago really. In my lifetime I have watched as our culture embraced the values both of these concepts represent. Today both ideas are familiar and commonly practiced. It took just a few decades for the concept of recycling to become a common household practice. Likewise, today organic foods are found on the shelves in all major grocery stores. There was a time these ideas were “cutting edge”.

This for me is very fun to see.

I think that philosophy we embrace at CSLT is “cutting edge”. It is an idea whose time has come, an idea that makes good sense. More and more people daily embrace some aspect of New Thought philosophy. Witnessed by the work of well know TV celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra, and the myriad of other New Thought teachers, literature, CD’s, mp3s, workshops and tons of information available on the internet. The basic concepts that Dr Holmes proposed are being explored and lived by many, whether they are aware of the origin of those ideas or not.

Now in 2017 I am reminded of how it felt to be involved in getting the word out about recycling and eating organically. I remember the feeling of momentum building and awareness growing. Today I hear folks espouse the merits of eating a clean diet and I smile. There was a time when this was “cutting edge” thinking. Today it is commonplace.

When I apply this to New Thought I get goose bumps (the good kind), because I can see, very soon, a day when we’ll all know that we live in choice. A day when we all know that available to everyone, right now, are useful tools that work to help each of us stay centered in the Divine, tools that allow joy and contentment to define our lives. I feel the momentum building, as everyday more and more people become aware of, and choose to use these tools, and to play in this field of unlimited potential. I delight when I think of the kind of place our earth becomes.

Here is to the day when the awareness of New Thought principles is as common as a recycling bin in every home. It is just around the corner!

I feel thankful to know this truth,

Sheila Campbell

“When consciousness is changed, experience automatically changes”          — Ernest Holmes, Living the Science of Mind 207.4

Growing And Grateful

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“…the human is really Divine but will ever evolve into newer and better states of conscious being”. ~~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind 410.1

So for a few minutes I got ticked off and wondered to myself, “How the *bleep* many times do I have to process this same stuff?  I’ve done ‘tons’ of ‘work’ on my ‘issues’ – in Alcoholics Anonymous, with therapists and in numerous classes at CSL Seattle and CSLT.  What does it take, anyway?”

Well gang, once again I am reminded that growth is an ongoing thing as it must be since Spirit is ever-evolving through and as me/you/us.  I will never get a doctorate in any of the ‘issues’ I thought I had nailed.  However, I choose to embrace growth and thereby, more life, more love, joy, and peace as a result of being willing to be honest with myself and do what needs to be done by me.  But growth is frequently preceded by pain, discomfort, angst and/or confusion.  I mean, who really needs to grow while lying next to the pool in the sun, listening to the birds sing?

But let me get to the causal factors behind this article.  Money, for one.  I thought I understood and totally had it down how the Law of Divine Circulation works and that I always embodied prosperity consciousness.  It was easy to think that way because I had enough money for everything (within reason) that I wanted, plus enough to share.  I tithed.  I actually would occasionally find ‘extra’ money in my checking account.  But then I joined a gym and hired a trainer, my kitty got sick, I took a couple trips and not only was the ‘extra’ money gone, but I realized I was a bit overextended.  Lack and limitation consciousness can be subtle, and just because one is aware of it doesn’t necessarily keep it at bay.  It crept in and I was dumbfounded to find myself sprawled out in the Ditch of Lack.

Enter humility.  Enter actually using the spiritual practice tools we have been instructed to use.  Enter the remembering that God is Source, and that my prosperity is not limited to the Social Security Administration and monthly withdrawals from my retirement fund.  Enter God as Creative Spirit and great ideas!  Seemingly out of the blue, I realized I had several pieces of jewelry that I no longer wear and that there is a great store in Tucson that might wish to sell these items on consignment; they agreed and so far, I have picked up checks for $795!  The community in which I live held a semi-annual yard sale and I sold a bunch of stuff l didn’t need or want to the tune of another $190.  I was reminded and reassured that God is always my source, no exceptions.  In my fear of not being able to manage things on my predictable income, I had forgotten where my good truly comes from.   I just need to remember and live in that certainty.  In The Science of Mind 402.1 Ernest Holmes shares this, “Let us be happy to begin right where we are and grow.”  Deal!

Another thing I thought I had nailed beyond question was boundaries and saying ‘no’ with love.  Alas, I manifested a situation that triggered numerous unpleasant feelings and in taking my own personal inventory as to my part in the breakdown of the relationship, I realized I had set sloppy boundaries and been out of integrity with myself.  I appreciate what Tama Kieves wrote in her book Inspired and Unstoppable, p. 292, “The difficulties are supposed to arise.  Challenges position you to evolve into more than you ever thought possible.”  …and from p. 281, “Wild success isn’t a destination but an awakening, and the evolution continues, as far as I can see.  Even as I know I will continue to face the unknown and unknowable, I feel more peaceful and grateful than ever before.  I know this way will take me all the way.” 

I overflow with gratitude that I am alive and aware of who I am, and that growth continues with every breath I take… I embrace growing pleasures as well as growing pains as I evolve more and more into the knowingness of God as me, as you, and as us.

by Renee’ Mezzone

One Earth

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I am an avid YouTube fan and wander through its riches frequently. Recently I fell in love with a channel that shows NASA footage livestreamed from the International Space Station. With a background of soft New Age music, I like to watch when the camera is trained on Earth as seen from orbit. I never cease to marvel at the beauty of our big blue marble in space. As the space station orbits Earth, I can see the brilliant sparkle of sunlight off waves in the distant oceans. Clouds hug the surface of our planet and seem to glow with an internal light as they also absorb and reflect the sun. Continents become visible and are revealed as smooth expanses of brown under the clouds. At first, I thought the landmasses looked odd. They were just like the maps of my childhood schoolroom in shape, but they looked at the same time completely different.

When I was in school, a large glossy map of the world always hung at front of the room. I spent a lot of time gazing at the map, wondering how it came to be that South America’s shape could nestle like a puzzle piece into the coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. I was not surprised when scientists brought forward the continental drift theory that the landmasses were all once a giant supercontinent, Pangaea, which broke apart billions of years ago. Another thing I noticed in those maps was that every continent was divided up by lines that enclosed shapes of different colors. Africa and Europe looked like patchwork quilts of many colors describing the various countries’ borders.

It was the lack of lines on the continents that at first made the world from space look odd to my eyes. There are no visible borders and boundaries on the Earth’s landmasses. There is no separation visible between nations, people and resources from space; it is evident that Earth is Whole. I was reminded of John Lennon’s song “Imagine”:

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

I like to imagine our world in peace, without nationalistic or religious fighting. I once read something about describing one’s address in purely ecological/geographic terms, not using man-made GPS coordinates or country names or political subdivisions of the earth. I tried it out for myself and found it difficult to avoid all “names” but with my new address I felt like a citizen of a whole earth community. Here it is: I live on planet Earth, in the northern hemisphere, almost in the middle of the longest landmass that extends nearly from pole to pole, in a vast desert which is the only place on earth where saguaro cacti grow, in a basin between three mountain ranges, in the Upper Santa Cruz watershed, west of the river itself, and east of the high pass of the western mountain range, near the base of a hill.

I like to watch the NASA livestream and think of myself as a denizen of this planet, unlabeled, undivided and whole and remember with Black Elk:

And while I stood there

I saw more than I can tell

and I understood more than I saw,

for I was seeing in a sacred manner

the shapes of all things in the spirit

and the shape of all shapes as

they must all live together

as one being.

I remember that I am the sparkling waters. I am the shining clouds. I am the blue Earth

and the blackness of space that swaddles it. I AM.

By Leah Hamilton, RScP

On Eagle’s Wings

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“If you don’t like where you are, move. You are not a tree” – Unknown

“Believers do not carry their faith, faith is their wings. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.” – Ibrahim Emile

In my dream,​ I’m standing alone in an expansive ​barren field. My view is clear, far into the distance and high above. I look way ​up in the sky and see a bald eagle majestically riding the current of the wind. Intuitively, I know this bald ​eagle will fly down within seconds to land on my left shoulder. I brace myself and prepare for the powerful whoosh of the eagle’s landing and the piercing of the eagle’s mighty talons as they grip onto my body. Astonishingly, the eagle lights without a sound, without so much as raising a hair on my head, softly and gently as a single feather. The eagle perches on my shoulder and together, we stand and just look, for a very long time.

​Have you ever felt like you’re lost in your life and you don’t know what you’re doing anymore? Like you just wanted to sleep until everything sorted itself out? Like you were alone and lost in a barren field of nothingness not knowing how to find yourself and just at that breaking point, an “eagle” of sorts appears – possibly as a new insight or a remembrance of something you already knew, but had forgotten in the flurry of your despair?

​Some that know me well are aware I’ve been grappling with what’s next in my life. I’ve given up trying to hide my struggle. My journey hasn’t been very pretty and it’s definitely not over.

Oddly, through this writing, I discovered for myself that I don’t really like change. I see that while I crave change desperately, I have been resisting it by staying mired in confusion and feelings of hopelessness. Carolee Dean’s quote​ “As long as you’re breathing, there’s still hope” gives me comfort as some days I wanted to do nothing more that retract, retreat, close down and give up!

Another fairly obvious insight I imagine many might identify with is that I forget what I ‘know’. As a ‘practicer’ in the Science of Mind philosophy and teachings, I now ‘rechoose’ the truth of our teachings. I choose Faith now and move into a place of gratitude for this transition I have so stubbornly resisted. I let go of my need to know what’s next and I embrace now as a time to purge, to rethink priorities and to be intentional about new habits. I choose to move forward freely rather stand still and continue to suffer.

​Holding this view when we consider our beloved CSLT and the transition we too as a community are going through, might serve us well. Let’s fully embrace this fertile transition with excitement and exuberance! Let’s proudly acknowledge our progress and forward movement! Our currently barren but fertile land on 22nd St stands ready for the seeds of new creation just as my life is now fertile for that which I choose to plant, when the time is ripe for the planting.

As a community, it’s time for us to solidly ground and practice our Faith and hold on, because when we do, the power of our collective creative imagination will and must manifest!!

“We wish a faith based on the knowledge that there is nothing to fear! Faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The thought of faith molds the undifferentiated substance, and brings into manifestation the thing which was fashioned in the mind. This is how faith brings our desires to pass. When we use our creative imagination in strong faith, it will create for us, out of the One Substance, whatever we have formed in thought. In this way, man becomes a Co-Creator with God…This is not a difficult task, but a thrilling experience. (Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind 156.5-157.2)

Funny, how we forget what we know…

In fearless faith,

Holly Baker​

Releasing the (Inner) Warrior

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I am ever grateful for the philosophy and tools I have learned here at CSLT because they have changed my approach to living. During the last few weeks I faced some challenges that would have defeated my old self. But I learned way back in Foundations class that when the brown stuff starts to pile up that is the time to start getting out the spiritual tools like meditation and prayer. One of my lifeline quotes from Ernest Holmes in The Science of Mind is on page 282.4. (I know it is important because it appears totally in caps):

TO DESERT THE TRUTH IN THE HOUR OF NEED IS TO PROVE THAT WE DO NOT KNOW THE TRUTH.  When things look the worst, that is the supreme moment to demonstrate, to ourselves, that there are no obstructions to the operation of truth.

Holmes is talking about keeping the faith in Good when everything seems grim. All around me everything sure felt negative. I had been personally attacked and undermined on my job. I saw a long- time coworker and friend involuntarily transferred out of my unit. A friend at the Center decided to steer her life away in a different direction. I had my faith denigrated by a person close to me as “fortune cookie nonsense.” I was left thinking “What the hell?” I felt angry, very angry, and I also experienced a sense of loss for the people no longer in my daily sphere.

I have a card on my altar with a quote by Ram Dass that says: Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it! That means everything that happens to me is ultimately for my good. I knew I had to start looking for that Good. I remembered Reverend Janis quoting Nelson Mandela as saying that if he continued to be bitter and angry at those who held him captive, it would be like keeping himself in prison. That told me I had to process my anger too, and that didn’t mean eating a box of chocolate to numb out. It meant a form of radical acceptance, just letting myself feel my emotions. I sat with my anger in meditation and let it tell me where it lived in my body and what it wanted me to know. I was aware that behind every emotion is a thought. As I sat I discovered the thoughts behind my feelings of anger and loss and the story I created about my reality.

My freedom of choice allows me to reframe the meaning of any experience, to rewrite my stories. I asked myself “is there a different way to look at this situation than as a victim?” That’s when I remembered that I had stated my desire to get in touch with that warrior woman archetype within me a few weeks ago. I had said I was attracted to the independence, decisiveness and strength of the warrior archetype and wanted to bring it into my personal life. Bingo! I had brought the perfect opportunities to myself to practice! When attacked on the job I strongly asserted myself and spoke my truth in a way I had never done before. When ridiculed for my beliefs, I accepted that I no longer needed others to accept me and approve what I do. When the two friends moved on, I realized I had not lost them but their daily absence from my life did spur me to remain independent in my work and growth. I indeed began to see all these events as catalysts for my transformation. I found God and saw the good in the events that had seemed so hurtful.

Like dough to make good bread, I sometimes need the leavening yeast of challenges, along with a good kneading, to make me rise and be strong. Once risen I know I can go out into the world and help others rise as well. In the New Testament, Luke 13:20–21, Jesus gives his shortest parable:

“To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

I now know I can prove the Truth to myself. It only takes a few people living the Truth to help others so we may all rise together and create the Kingdom of God right here.

And So It Is!

By Leah Hamilton

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