A Miracle Healing

By 1995, I had become an avid reader of all the spiritual and mystical books I could find. I visited a nearby metaphysical store every week searching for more knowledge and inspiration. My relationship with my husband was not going well and I was having difficulty in my spiritual life because of my long-standing feelings of anger and frustration.

One morning, I woke up and when I opened my eyes, it felt like dozens of little pulsing needles were poking my eyes! I was intensely sensitive to any type of light. It was excruciating! I asked my husband to close the blinds and drapes and tack up blankets to completely block any light from coming in the windows. I spent all day lying on the couch with a dark towel over my eyes. That evening, I couldn’t stand to have a lamp or ceiling light on or to watch TV even with dark sunglasses on. I had to cover all LED lights on digital clocks with black paper.

For the next few days, all I could do was lie on the couch with a dark towel over my eyes. I had a “poor me pity party” and angrily ranted to God, “What have I done to deserve this? I’ve been reading every book I can find to learn how to be a more spiritually balanced person. Now THIS happens! I feel absolutely useless right now! Oh no, am I going blind? PLEASE don’t do that to me!”

This condition intensified as the days wore on, so I went to my doctor. He said my eyes looked normal but gave me some eye drops. I had an MRI, to rule out a brain tumor as a possible cause, but it was normal. Well, I wasn’t going blind; it was a condition known as Photophobia. It would eventually, probably, go away on its own.

For 3 weeks, I continued my miserable existence on the couch, eyes closed with a towel over my face! I begged, cried and ranted, but my condition wasn’t improving. Finally, one Saturday, I said, “OK God, I GIVE UP! I went out to my car and drove to my favorite meditation spot; a church with a large campus of separate buildings and desert landscape throughout. It was very peaceful there. I walked to the back of the property, went behind a classroom building where no one could see me and sat down on the concrete walkway. I rested my back against the building and in a calm voice, said “God, I do not understand why this is happening to me, so I am here for answers. What is the meaning behind my eye problem? There must be a message for me in this experience and, until I understand and am healed, I intend to remain here, for however long it takes.”

I started to close my eyes, but then, I heard a rustling sound beside me. I looked, and there was a little bird flopping around on the ground. One wing was bent and when it tried to fly, it fell over and rolled. No matter how hard it tried, flight was not an option. I told it, “Believe me! I know exactly how you’re feeling right now!” I felt such compassion for the little bird’s plight that I picked it up and set it in my hands forming a little round nest with my palms and loosely clasped fingers on my lap. It offered no resistance. I gently tucked both wings around its body and softly rubbed my thumb over its head until it went to sleep.

I closed my eyes again. All anger and impatience was gone and only a sense of peaceful surrender remained. I said, “God, there are two of us, here, waiting to be healed. We know you are our Creator, so we have no doubts that you can fix us. We will be patient and trusting. Then, just like a tape recorder started, I heard all the desperate pleas, angry thoughts and words I’d cried out to God in frustration, since the first day of my symptoms. However, I listened to them in a detached non-emotional state. What was obvious to me, immediately, was how many times I had screamed out to God with questions but then never listened for answers. I had been so focused on my physical suffering, that not once, did I ask “What is this about?”

I took a deep shaky involuntary breath and when I exhaled, I let my mind go completely blank. Then, I saw/felt myself as the bird being cradled in a loving hand. I felt like I was a child again, who had fallen down and was now being comforted in the loving arms of my parent who stroked my head and kissed away my tears, saying, “I know you’re hurting, but everything’s going to be OK; I promise.” My entire world of trouble melted away in that complete and unconditional loving moment. Every muscle in my body relaxed and a huge sense of relief came over me when I realized I didn’t have to figure this out; I only had to listen.

The Message: “You do not have to look outside yourself to find answers to your problems. The solution is always available when you go within. I am always with you. Books are a source of information, but I will always have you, specifically, in mind when you ask for help in any situation. Just be still and listen for that guidance – it’s always available.”

With that, I opened my eyes and looked at the desert landscape surrounding me and at the beautiful mountain that loomed in the distance. My eyes were OK, and I no longer needed to squint in the bright sunlight. I looked down at my little bird friend, and its eyes were open and looking around as well. I knew we were both healed!

I set the bird back down on the sandy ground beside me and watched as it hopped up on a nearby wire fence. I cheered it on, “Come on! You can do this! Just go for it!” It fluttered its wings a bit and then flew away as birds with healthy wings do. I felt like a proud mom!

My energy was boosted and I felt like I’d just had my battery charged! I stood up and jogged across the landscape to my car. When I got home, I walked through the door laughing and commenting on what a beautiful day it was. When my husband asked what happened to me, I simply said, “A miracle!” Then I pulled all the blankets off the windows, threw open the curtains and thanked God for my vision. I felt such joy!

This experience taught me that whenever I need assistance in my life – rather than read a book, get angry or struggle to figure things out on my own, I can sit quietly and trust that God will always tell me what I need to know. I’ve experienced several spontaneous healings that most people would consider to be miracles. I know it as God continuing to bless my life.

(I was prompted to write the above story because I recently watched an Oprah Winfrey interview with Dr. Michael Beckwith, of Agape International Spiritual Center. He talked about his book, Life Visioning. One thing he said really hit home for me, “When you struggle with a problem, focusing only on that problem, it will intensify. The only way you can overcome circumstances and situations that are pressing in upon you, is to go within. He said pain pushes until a larger vision pulls. When we ask disempowering questions like, “Why is this happening to me?” all we’ll get is a bevy of excuses. But when we ask empowering questions like, “What message is trying to emerge?” and put our full attention on possibilities of a higher purpose, the process of moving out of the darkness is speeded up. He said, “The good news is that our potential is infinite, and is always bigger than any problem that we face.”)

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

By Serina French

Grateful … For This?

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An attitude of gratitude is most salutary, and bespeaks the realization that we are now in heaven. (Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind 497.2)

Wednesday night following the elections, we had a regularly scheduled Journey class. It was supposed to be about “The Hero’s Journey” and how archetypes color our lives. In a way it was. This election moved each of us through our own personal hero’s journey, or as I like to think of it, the agitation and spin cycles of a washing machine. Ultimately, we come out cleaner, clearer and more focused, and the process tends to be disorienting and generally unpleasant.

Obviously, we talked at length about the election results and our impressions of the particular candidates and our feelings and fears about them, recognizing that we each carry a biased caricature in our individual minds about who these two individuals are, and what they represent. By the end of the evening, most of the individuals present felt less at the effect of the election results, and recognized that this election calls each of us to shift from a sense of complacency into engagement and involvement in some fashion and at some level that is unique to each individual.

Each of us has had experiences, or have read about, or heard about experiences, that reinforce our viewpoint of the state of our country. I know it has been true for me; suddenly, random people seem more rude and pushy and arrogant and unkind. And we know, at least hypothetically, that we can only see what we believe. Is it time to pull out some elbow grease and scrub our pet points-of-view and see what we discover? When we remember, we know we are at liberty to think the kinds of thoughts we choose, and work towards the kind of world that we desire to live in.

No democracy, or organization, works long or well if participants willingly allow others to do all their thinking and deciding for them. Each one of us has to do our own heavy lifting. In this instantaneous information, misinformation and disinformation, age in which we find ourselves, sifting through the noise to find accurate, pertinent and meaningful input to allow conscious, intentional decisions can be challenging, and time-consuming. It’s not a whole lot of fun, unless you really enjoy detective work.

You have heard the quote, “Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.” It is attributed to Gene Fowler, a journalist, author and dramatist. I think it is fair to say that he was an observer of the human condition. Whether he is a cynic or a realist, I’ll leave that to your interpretation. He is also quoted as saying, “Everyone needs a warm personal enemy or two to keep him free from rust in the movable parts of his mind.”

So now, how do we move from disgust and distrust to that salutary (i.e. favorable, healthful, beneficial, wholesome) attitude of gratitude? How much personal work will it take so that we can find gratitude for the individuals who wake us up from our slumber, and move us back into our active, participative adulthood as members of our lives, and our society?

In The Hidden Power of the Bible, Ernest Holmes reframed the story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden as the necessary waking up that humanity had to do once they collectively chose to experience a world view that contained duality – good and bad, light and dark – and in that choosing, realized that each was always at liberty to choose, and choose again. Maybe this election has created the necessary momentum for each of us to remember to choose the biggest, boldest, brightest life expression we can imagine, and to step on to a bigger stage than we ever imagined. And maybe it has served as a bold reminder that we are in charge of our life experience, and not be at the effect of something or someone outside of ourselves. I can find gratitude for that reminder, and step boldly into my life.

Best, Rev Janis Farmer

Double Down and Flip

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by Holly Baker

Double Down – to become more tenacious, zealous, or resolute in a position or undertaking

By the time you are reading this article, without any threatened delays and, fingers double crossed, we’ll finally know the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.

Jangled nerves, a neck and back achy with complaint, my body, mind and spirit hunger to end my election year bender, a self-imposed bonafide media binge. Like a gawker passing a horrifying car accident, I couldn’t stop slowing down to look again and again.

No matter how repulsed, I’ve been fixated by this year’s election cycle – following all major newspaper coverage, missing not one minute of all three debates. To my glee, the latest IOS update for iPhone displays “Breaking News” on the opening screen. The words “double down” entered my awareness and vocabulary for the first time.

In this season of an in-your-face, all-persuasive feeling of separateness, even vitriolic hate – an us-versus-them atmosphere on steroids, how do we embrace our Oneness? How do we “double down” on our Truth?

In CSL’s “The Power of your Word”, an 8-week certificated course, weekly homework starts with the popular news – each student picks a current news story that triggers them, pushes their buttons, or repulses them.

The initial task in this course designed to teach students to formulate and use Spiritual Mind Treatment for themselves and others is to identify the God Quality in any situation, and then “flip” the perceived condition to a positive, an expression of Wholeness.

We learn everything we experience demonstrates a God quality. Behind every fear is a God quality. Knowing Wholeness, knowing Perfection, knowing it’s all God is the first step. There is no evil just a misuse of good. Science of Mind does not deny any circumstance; we deny it has power over us. Pain lets us know we are alive. We’re not supposed to put up with it, but change our mind about it and then it can change. We choose our consciousness. We bring every trigger to ourselves in order to develop mastery.

During this divisive time as we begin our lives under new controversial leadership, how do we remember and apply the principle that we are ONE? What are the God qualities you can see?

Double down on knowing Oneness, double down on knowing Perfection, double down on knowing Love. Flip whatever angst you are feeling and “double down”. The source of peace lies within us.

My eyes behold the complete and perfect in all Creation, “In all, over all and through all.” I see the perfect; there is nothing else to see, and no suggestion of otherness can enter my thought. I know only the perfect and the complete. I am perfect and whole, now. I see the Good.
–Ernest Holmes

Come On In … The Water’s Fine

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While volunteering as a Chaplain at the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital in Salt Lake City, a Protestant Chaplain shared his motto with me: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Intuitively, I resonated with the wisdom of this guideline, and when I shared it with peers or other chaplains, their heads always nodded in agreement.

The objective of an effective chaplain is to help people confront their demons so that they can deal with them. “Afflicting” is not about irritating. It’s about awakening to the truth of the situation and to a deeper truth beyond the conditions. It’s about bringing one to themselves, so they can bring out more of themselves.

An American proverb offers: “People are like teabags. They find out what they’re made of when they get into hot water.”

Just like with the chaplain’s point of view, when most people hear this proverb, they nod in agreement. What many don’t say, and more probably believe, is that “hot water” can be a bad and painful thing; that hot water is undesirable. Who wants to suffer? On the other hand, most believe that we need to hurt to wake up, and after being around this world for more than just a few years, this belief seems more regularly experienced than not. However, I don’t believe that life has to be this way, and neither does it need to remain this way if it has been up to this point in time.

When I think of hot water as a method by which a tea bag can bring out the tea’s true nature, its true essence, it becomes analogous to the hot water in a “Hot Tub”. Hot tubs can be therapeutic. They help us cleanse, feel refreshed and feel like a cooked noodle in a good way. The hot tub can help to bring out health and vibrancy, just like the hot water helps bring out the essence of the tea.

Hot water can help us birth our greatness, our magnificence, our true essence. In the same way, afflicting ourselves into a recognition of reality, can facilitate our awakening to the obstacles we have place in the way of that greatness and help us to choose differently.

Consciously or unconsciously, we create our own suffering. Consciously or unconsciously, we also create our own metaphoric hot water.

I think it is more difficult to experience personal magnificence, when we believe we have to suffer in order to get there. That would mean we could not experience greatness while having an ecstatic experience; that we have to suffer in order to awaken instead of enjoying the journey. This is absurd.

The belief that we have to be the wounded healer; that we have to limp along from the wounds of past experiences in order to step into greatness, is a horribly limiting way to go through life. And I say this, even though I have lived much of my life with this approach. However, just because we have lived our lives in that way up to this point in time, does not mean we have to continue in this manner. Maybe it’s time to consider doing it differently.

I think it’s time to celebrate the magnificence within us. I think it’s time to glory in and share the Power, the Intelligence and the Presence that lives within all of us, AS us, with each other. I think it’s time we climbed into the hot tub of magnificence together. I think it’s time to jump into the boiling pot that brings out our greatest selves.

Together, let’s steep in our magnificence and create a brew worthy of drinking and sharing. Together, let’s allow the Divine Tea (Divinity) to come forth from ourselves and share it with each other.

In case you have not started before now, it’s never too late to begin. Come on in. The water’s fine.

Many Rich Blessings On You…
RevDonald

Don’t Go There!

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The theme for June was “imagination” and its power to manifest our experience in life. Like all of us, I have a vivid imagination which likes nothing more than to run hither and yon, unchecked, conjuring up all sorts of vivid images, scenarios, and outcomes, often the worst possible outcomes. The Science of Mind teaches that what you focus on or give constant attention to increases or manifests as our experience. Our imagination gives power to and solidifies what we believe, think and say, by giving them a strong visual and experiential component in our mind. When we strongly imagine something, do we not only visualize it, but experience as well as feel it? The Universe, or Divine Mind, which always says “Yes!” will always respond to the imagined scenario and reflect it back to us and manifest it as our reality.

In his book The Power of Awareness, Neville Goddard writes “…to become the master of your assumptions [beliefs, thoughts] is the key to undreamed-of freedom and happiness. You can attain this mastery by deliberate conscious control of your imagination. The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well-sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on the object to be accomplished.”

But how do you consciously control your imagination, which by its very nature seems impossible to direct, especially when it comes to thinking about the worst (which your mind seems so willing to do)? One way is to notice when your imagination is going in a negative direction and stop that train of thought. Thank your mind for sharing, then turn to its polar positive opposite and contemplate a higher idea. A phrase I’ve been using of late whenever my imagination starts down a negative free-for-all slide is “Don’t go there!” I’ve found that this puts on the brakes, so to speak, and sets my train of thought on to another track, in another direction, where I am free to choose a more positive idea. It works!!

Another process you can use (which I’ve shared in a previous article, but it bears repeating), is the following: after a treatment, while still in an expanded, high state of consciousness, indulge in an imaginary visualization voyage where you vividly see, experience and feel what it would be like if what you’ve just treated for were actually real in your life right now. It’s your trip, your imagination is infinite, and nothing is impossible. Should your logical mind want to step in with all its negative reasons and “yeah, buts” why your good cannot happen, DON’T GO THERE and continue imagining your good as vividly and thoroughly as you can. This is your time and this is a gift you are giving yourself! Immerse yourself fully in its “reality” and when you feel whole, complete, happy, and at peace, release it into the Universe, knowing it’s a done deal!

You CAN pro-actively direct your imagination to manifest the kind of life you want. Just get into the habit of noticing where it’s going, and if it’s not in the direction you want it to go, Don’t Go There!!

And so it is! Namaste. By Jon William Lopez, RScP

Living Love

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Ernest Holmes wrote, “The Truth points to freedom, under Law. We do well to listen to this Inner Voice, for it tells us of a life wonderful in its scope; of a love beyond our fondest dreams…” (The Science of Mind, 25.3-26.1)

In my experience, Dr. Holmes spoke truly. As I examined all that did not work in any previous relationships, I had to admit to myself the truth of my level of involvement in them was what didn’t work. I knew there must be another way, a better way, but what was it? I also knew that by using the Law, I could answer my own dilemma.

Carl Rogers defined love as “unconditional positive regard.” This is the essence of the love Holmes referred to above. This unconditional regard is what might be called Divine Love, which already lives in us, and when we allow it, it expresses through us and leads us beyond anything we can dream of.

In the first session of “Love, Relating & Relationships”, I offered a paraphrase of Lao Tzu: “To know, do. To do, be. To be, know.” That circular expression explains the principle of knowing and the method to access it. By doing love, by loving, anyone can access Holmes’ ideal of “a love beyond our fondest dreams.” By loving, we access the use of the Law FOR Love and experience more of It.

Everyone already lives in relationship with everything in the world, whether conscious of it or not. Each person shares the air available on the planet. For example, everyone here in Arizona inhales the blowings of the humpback whales in the Indian Ocean and shares their exhale with the whales. Whether it is relating to the clothes covering the body, the chair on which one sits, the ground on which one walks, everyone is in relationship with everything, including all the love there ever has been.

By shining light on what doesn’t support experiencing healthy relationships, anyone can stop doing what doesn’t work, which opens a space in which to allow all relationships to work. Literally, anyone can do this, because already human beings are designed to relate.

As social animals, relating is built into us. It is encoded in our DNA. Relating is natural for us. We have difficulty only when we have decided otherwise. Just like the fact that the sun still shines, even when we can’t see it through the clouds, or because we are standing inside a cave, or because it is on the other side of the globe, the sun is still doing what the sun does naturally: It shines. So it is with relating and with loving. We have to convince ourselves otherwise, in order to experience that we are not in relationship, or that we are not loved.

By relating, by truly relating, anyone can experience more love and better relationships in every area of life. By living as the innate Love within, anyone can experience more love in life. That is what living love really is, and to the degree that we let love out, we experience a love beyond our fondest dreams.

Live your love and love your living.

BestBlessings,
RevDonald

The Universe is Prosperous

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Prosperity is the nature of the Universe and abundance is the expression and experience of that prosperity. More leaves grow on trees this year than last, and anyone who rakes them notices this fact.

Even with evidence from Nature, some people have difficulty experiencing the natural abundance of life. If someone is unaware that abundance is natural, that lack of awareness can keep the abundance away. Using the same logic, if someone accepts the natural abundant state, their acceptance would make space for greater abundance into that person’s life.

Cultural consciousness, the collective and accumulated viewpoint that any society has believed and promoted, can hinder the experience of abundance by focusing on lack, deprivation, the “have’s” and the “have-not’s”. Everyone lives in the sea of his or her collective viewpoint, and those who are receptive to its siren song, or who are unconscious of it, are controlled or at least influenced by it.

Just like a river, thought flows along the lines of least resistance, and culture-consciousness can shift focus from the prosperity-is-natural viewpoint toward lack and limitation. There are plenty of examples of people focusing on this latter reality.

If you live in a lack-and-limitation culture and want to experience greater abundance, you must consciously direct your thinking away from the culture-consciousness of scarcity and redirect your attention toward abundance. You must consciously change your point of view about life and its possibilities. This can seem challenging or downright difficult at first; however, persistence really pays off … literally.

Even as prosperity is the Universe’s nature, it is also the Universe’s nature to say, “Yes” to our directives, our commands, especially when the command is sustained with strong feeling and/or emotion. Fortunately, or unfortunately the Universe only says “Yes” to true commands and not to every random thought that passes through our mind. Emotion and feeling holds attention, and this is what makes the directive a true command.

When you put regular attention on the wonder and possibility of your personal experience of an abundant life, that decision brings the opportunity to experience these things into view. By focusing on the abundance of life and living in accord with that intention, you can have more abundant experiences. Life eagerly says, “Yes!” by affirming the presence of supply, and it willingly becomes a more joyful adventure. More good then begins to come naturally and effortlessly.

By affirming “All I desire comes to me,” and accepting the truth of this statement for just five minutes, four times daily, the Universe says, “Yes” to greater joy and abundance.

Join others in The Experiment here at the Center, by affirming your abundant nature, and by living, loving and giving from that awareness. Watch the gentle explosion of good, as it overflows in your life.

“Divine Love, as me, blesses and multiplies all that I am, all that I give, and all that I receive.”
And So It Is.
BestBlessings,
Rev Donald

Envisioning – It’s Your Right to Invoke The Law

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By Lynden Kidd, Chairman, CSLT

In this great country of ours we are invited to participate in our government; to vote for those who shape our laws and policies.  I’ve often been surprised when someone who holds a particularly deep belief about a ‘right or wrong’ also tells me that they’ve decided not to vote in an election for some reason. In my mind, that is an abdication of an essential and defining right of citizenship. That individual has dropped the ball on their role in improving the country by opting out of voting. They may have excuses or stories as to why, but in this era of mail in ballots and election-day transportation; there is no good reason not to have your choices be counted.

Clearly, Center for Spiritual Living Tucson is not a governmental entity. We aren’t a democracy either. The Board of Trustees makes decisions based on consensus: We all agree, by working to see the others’ points of view and come to agreement about the highest and best for all.

COMMUNITY ENVISIONING – This is one of our Center’s ways of inviting YOU to have a significant say about who we are and who we become and to be an active part of creating the future of our sacred Center. You may have joined us for one of our new classes in the yearlong series called, “The Journey”, or you may have a heard in one of Reverend Donald’s recent Sunday talks and know that we transform ourselves while we transform our community! This is an opportunity to participate in conscious transformation, by joining other community members for a few hours dedicated to envisioning our Center the way we want it to be.

We have the benefit of one of the brightest and most motivational leaders within Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL) – Reverend Dr. John Waterhouse, President of CSL, who is the senior co-minister at the Center for Spiritual Living Asheville, North Carolina. As CSL’s President, Dr. John coordinates communications and services between our centers and ministries and the rest of the global organization. We benefit from his wonder and wisdom for a full weekend, and you won’t want to miss a moment.  Starting at 6:30pm on Friday, April 17th, he will coax and cajole the best from each of us about our vision for our sacred community – our CSLT. Then on Saturday, from 9am to ‘at the latest’ 5pm, he will help us clarify our vision for the future of our spiritual home and assist us in articulating our objectives in reaching the big stretch goals for our Center.

So, please join us. Take ownership in what this Center has done for you and to you, as you’ve transformed. Help us reach a bigger audience. Help us accomplish our mission of moving more fully forward as THE premier hub for transformational teaching and growth in Tucson and Southern Arizona.

Thanks for joining me, the Center’s leadership team and the other champions, as we envision the highest and best for our community.  I trust I will see you on Friday and Saturday, as we invest with you in the growth, well-being and vision of our sacred Center for Spiritual Living Tucson.

Volunteering, or The “V” word

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When I reflect on my life, I’m fairly certain that the first good decision I ever made was when I was thirty-four and checked myself into treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.  But it wasn’t just staying sober that changed my life – it was my introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous.  You see, AA is a spiritual program and I hated all that God and prayer stuff.  Not only that, they told me if I wanted to stay sober I needed to help the newcomers and do ‘service work’.  What?  As a totally self-absorbed addict it was beyond the scope of my imagination to do anything besides try to stay sober.  Plus, I’ve never been one to do what other people think I ‘should’ or ‘need to’ do.  Guilt-tripping me doesn’t work.  I didn’t want to volunteer and no one could make me!

So I simply went to meetings and didn’t drink.  And those kind, truthful, annoyingly helpful people got through my thick skin and I willingly began the volunteering phase of my life.

As a bonus, I found that volunteering in Alcoholics Anonymous gave me far more than continued sobriety – I became part of a community and it felt so very wonderful to truly belong somewhere.  The more I helped in various ways, the better I felt about myself.  Other people’s welfare became important to me, as did the survival of my favorite meetings and the organization itself.  I had found a healthy place to hang out and grow and I didn’t want to lose it.

Fast forward thirty years:  That’s the same way I feel about CSLT.  I am so in love with my spiritual community!  During the two years I lived in Kanab, Utah, the thing I missed the most was my ‘people’, my ‘tribe’.  A year ago when I decided to leave Kanab I contemplated where in the world I wanted to live next – it was a short internal discussion.  I came home.

The ‘V’ word has become one of my greatest pleasures in life…yes, folks, I volunteer and I love it!  I care so much about CSLT and I want us to thrive for me and to be a major, positive force in Tucson, in Arizona!  So I give of my time.  I invest in my incredible community of like-minded souls who count on us to be here every Sunday.  At first I ushered – easy, infrequent, yet I had an opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and greet everyone who came through the doors.   Then, against every argument to the contrary in my brain, I actually volunteered to be on the Host Team – to be on the stage all by myself and speak into a microphone to y’all!  And no one has boo’d me off yet.  But the biggest commitment (aargh, the ‘C’ word!) I’ve ever made is becoming a member of the Board of Trustees here at the center. I was scared; all those old voices in my head told me I wasn’t smart enough, good enough, educated enough, mellow enough.  But the sane part of me won and I decided to invest my time and energy in what I love and to become a part of the changes and growth I want to see happen around our center.

Yes, I am a volunteer and am richly rewarded in more ways than I have space to write about.  If you’re not yet a volunteer because you aren’t sure what you would like to do or what needs to be done, talk to me.  There are so many choices, some of which aren’t visible to the general congregation on Sundays.  Most ‘jobs’ take up very little of one’s time.  And it feels so freaking good!  I guarantee you’ll feel more a ‘part of’ because you’ve shared some of yourself with something that matters to you. If it worked for a tough case like me, surely it will work for you.

by Renee’ Mezzone

A Clear Plan to Wealth and Abundance in Just 30 Minutes a Day

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In today’s economy, it’s more important than ever to get clear about your personal and professional goals—and to commit to a plan that will get you there. Financial abundance can be a game of fun and prosperity, but only when you realize that you don’t have to do everything yourself. Spirit wants to help you. Following is an overview of steps that you can take to allow it to do so:

1. Welcome your new spiritual partner to your financial advisory team and give it a name whose advice you value. I affectionately call my partner the Chief Spiritual Officer, or CSO for short. Create your own name for God, Spirit, Divine Intelligence, etc. which describes the characteristic of the all-knowing power of the universe that gives you advice through intuition, hunches, and other means.

2. Set aside 30 minutes a day to have a meeting with your partner. Follow a clear agenda that combines the force of 3 G’s – goals, gratitude, and God.

3. Establish clear job descriptions for both yourself and your new partner. You will decide what you want with gratitude. The CSO will create the path to achieve your goals and give you one step to take at a time. You will either take the step or ask for another lead. Then, you’ll reach your goal and celebrate.

4. Through this process you will experience a complete shift in your thinking about how financial wealth and abundance is created.

In my book, The Path to Wealth; Seven Spiritual Steps for Financial Abundance, you’ll also learn to go deeper into the practice to gain insight about your purpose, gain tools to successfully navigate financial ups and downs, overcome the fear of failure, as well as eliminate old beliefs and behaviors that have kept you from experiencing the success you really want.

Best of all, you will learn how to develop your own financial intuition, which is key to noticing and pursuing the opportunities that will present themselves once you are on this path.

Your spiritual advisor wants to help you. Make the commitment to begin your new partnership today!

May will be our guest author at our booth (#160) at this year’s Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday, March 14th between 11am and 3pm and will be speaking on Sunday morning, March 15th, during our Sunday Celebration Service at 10:30am and holding a workshop at our Office and Education Center from 1-3:30pm. Tickets for the workshop are $20 and can be purchased by contacting the office.

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May McCarthy has cofounded and grown six successful companies over her thirty-year career, with the largest growing to over $100 million in annual revenues. She credits her success to the spiritual new thought principles described in her book, and firmly believes that financial success and freedom are available to anyone who is willing to apply them. Visit her online at www.maymccarthy.com.

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