Category: blog

Enemy or Opportunity?

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Vernon Howard wrote,

We lose enemies when no longer having a false need for them.

WOW! What a powerful and accountable viewpoint.

We lose enemies to our self-expression, or threats to our person, or the experience of other people resisting our life expression, when we no longer have a false need for their behaviors or stimulae. I interpret this as “No one is against us and every thing and every one is FOR us. Or, at the very least, these things are there for our benefit.”

In example, when we have eliminated our doubt or uncertainty about some aspect of our life, when we are clear about the life we want, people don’t challenge us about that which we were doubting. It never even occurs to them. They doubt us because we get them to.

Every thing and every one in our life gives us feedback or information about our OWN point of view.

Everything and everyone helps us to awaken and to see where we are “on the map” in our life. This is tremendously good news! With this viewpoint we can experience every aspect of our life as a blessing. We can experience every person and every event as a gift we have given ourselves to awaken to how we are defining and interpreting our life. With this information, if we like the outcome, we can reinforce our point of view. And if we don’t like the outcome, we can change our point of view. The liberation potential is HUGE!

If may be hard at times to keep this point of view, when we get fired or divorced or experience illness or injury or financial crisis. However, if we can look at these events as supportive of our awakening, then maybe, just maybe, we can learn something about ourselves and can move into the experience FROM power and awareness, FROM the possibility of betterment.

It has been said many times and ways: “Whatever you focus on expands in life.” Well, there you have it!

Would focusing on how awful it is help to create an experience of possibility, or would it create an experience of victim-hood and potential despair?

When we look for possibilities and potential in a situation, we feel like we are more in the driver’s seat than when we feel at the effect of the same situation. And by definition, we can also see more possibilities and potential when we look FROM that point of view. It’s hard to see wildflowers while focusing on the thickness of the forest.

If you find an enemy in your life, give up the false need for that enemy and see what you might create from the situation.

Best Blessings,
Rev. Donald

Stone Soup & Letting Loose

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There are many variations on the story of Stone Soup, but they all involve a traveler coming into a town beset by famine.

The inhabitants try to discourage the traveler from staying, fearing that he wants them to give him food. They tell him in no uncertain terms that there is no food anywhere to be found. The traveler explains that he doesn’t need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them. The villagers watch suspiciously, as he builds a fire and fills a cauldron with water. With great ceremony, he pulls a stone from a bag and drops the stone into the pot of water. He sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious stone soup is. As the villagers begin to show interest, he mentions how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brings out a cabbage to add to the soup. This episode repeats itself until the soup has cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets; indeed, a substantial soup that feeds everyone in the village.

This story addresses the human tendency to hoard, especially in times of deprivation. When resources are scarce, we pull back and put all of our energy into self-preservation. We isolate ourselves and shut out others. It’s a biological reality, too. Individual cells in the body can either preserve or expand. However, the cell uses all of its resources to do one or the other. It can’t do both.

As individuals, we are more than a single cell of the body. Metaphorically, we are individual cells of a community, yet much more complex, with many more resources available.

Several experiments have proven that we actually change the composition of the cells in our body by thinking differently. By focusing on certain thoughts and feeling certain feelings, we change our body’s chemistry and the environment around the cell. We create the environment for the cell in which it makes its choices. As far as biologists can tell, the cell reacts to its environment, and it changes according to its survival requirements. We have choice, indeed many choices, and in our choosing, we create the environment in which our cells “choose” to survive. We choose our reactions to a world we have created. This is a closed-loop system in which we live, move and have being, and in which we choose how we will live, move and have our being.

“Stone Soup & Letting Loose” is not about survival. It’s about thrival. It’s about claiming the bounty we are made from and live in, the bounty of choice. It is about making choices from the awareness that abundance is our nature, and that Good fills our world.

The Stone Soup story reveals that by focusing on deprivation and lack, we deprive ourselves, and often everyone else, of a feast. This metaphor plays out beyond the realm of food. We hoard ideas, love and energy, thinking we will be richer if we keep them to ourselves, when in truth we make the world and ourselves poorer whenever we greedily stockpile our reserves. The traveler was able to perceive that the villagers were holding back, and he had the genius to draw them out and inspire them to give, thus creating a celebratory spread that none of them could, or in their state of mind, would have created alone.

Are you like one of the villagers, holding back in your world? Come forward and share your gifts. You will inspire others to do the same, and the reward is a banquet that will nourish many.

BestBlessings,
Rev Donald

Is it Really Intuition -vs- Reasoning?

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There was a post on Yahoo News (from LiveScience.com) this week called “Belief in God Boils Down to a Gut Feeling” by Stephanie Pappas. She reported on a study that suggested a link between thinking styles and the likelihood that someone would believe in a benevolent deity. The study authors noted that those who operated on intuition were more likely to believe than those who operated more on a reasoning or reflective basis.

From the on-line article: “The researchers plan to investigate how genes and education influence thinking styles, but they’re quick to note that neither intuition nor reflection is inherently superior. ‘It’s not that one way is better than the other,’ study researcher David Rand of Harvard said in a statement. ‘Intuitions are important and reflection is important, and you want some balance of the two. Where you are on that spectrum affects how you come out in terms of belief in God.’ The research was published Sept. 19 online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.”

This article was of interest to me personally because I have been experiencing a shift from reflective to intuitive for the past several years, and concurrent with this my belief in Spirit has moved from questioning to a sense of profound knowing.
I experienced two incidents just yesterday that confirmed the power of intuition in my life. In one case, I realized that I needed to check with my boss about the sponsorship of a community event that we had discussed several weeks ago. I had not yet acted on this thought when, a few minutes later, my boss came into my office with the executive director of the organization that is hosting the event. They had been in his office discussing the sponsorship, and then they came to tell me what had been decided. In the second case, I had been thinking that it would be nice to get together for dinner this weekend with some friends we hadn’t seen for a few weeks. A few hours later, Don called to say that these friends had contacted him about getting together, and we made plans accordingly.

by Karen Chatfield

What has your experience been?

The Night Sky

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I was awake this morning a little after four. At first that disturbed me a little, until I checked in and realized that not only had I had six and a half hours of deep, sound high-quality sleep, I also felt quite rested and refreshed, so I got up. And once up, I decided to go outside and look at the night sky. I have always felt a kinship with the starry night, perhaps it was all those evenings of walking our family dog when I was growing up and we lived on an army base in Germany.

This morning the moon had just set; the swath of sky immediately above my head was brilliant black and the constellations standing out in vivid contrast. Venus, morning star, was brighter than moonlight, Cassiopeia, Orion, The Pleiades felt like dear old friends who had come to visit after being away for a while. I realized in this crystalline moment, I felt inexorably… totally… at One with the All That Is and completely In The Circle.

by Janis Farmer

Do you? What pulls you into The Circle? What pulls you out?

Is Faith Made Up or Is It Real?

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I’ve been thinking about a note that an interested party sent me the other day. To paraphrase and abbreviate a long missive: “Is faith made up, or is it real? I don’t want to fake it.”

What if, since we make it up sometimes to our advantage and sometimes against it, if we realize that the name of the game is to make it up in a way that stacks the deck in our favor. What’s the disadvantage of this approach? None, from what I can tell.

We’re going to make it up some way: God exists/doesn’t exist; compare me with others; dark now, light now; faith or lack thereof (I’ve already said, “There is no such thing as no faith.”); structured inquiry or spontaneous expression or combustion; personified deity or cold law… and so it goes. We’re gonna’ make up something, and no matter what we make up, or what we have convinced ourselves is true, we still made it up and will always be making it up. That’s what we do. We’re designed that way.

Sometimes we convince ourselves we are safe by talking ourselves into believing that we are safe and by assuming that we know what’s going on around us. If this only helps us to feel more creative and at peace, so what? We are by design, automatic, organizing machines that overlay a notion of order into the absolute chaos of creation. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this approach to calming down. Most of us could use something to calm down; that’s for sure…and there’s no hangover.

Whether we’re boinking or breathing or musing or levitating, we can’t get out of this thing called Life. Even if we attempt escape by so-called suicide, there is no guarantee that we get “out” or avoid suffering. I also think that we make up all of the potential options and outcomes in this one, too.

Instead of is faith real or imagined, I think the real question is, “How are you gonna’ make up your life from now on. You’ve done it the way you’ve done it up to this time, and you always have the option of doing it a little or a lot differently every moment hereafter. What now, Dear Traveler? What choose, Ye? The blue or the red pill?

This time, I choose blue. Why? Because I choose blue.

What are you making up about all of this? You will make what you make up.

BestBlessings,

Rev Donald

It’s About Time!

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We are a soul, we are an immortal being, we are the personality of God… To know that one is the personality of God is the beginning of wisdom.
~ Ernest Holmes, 10 Ideas That Make a Difference, 64.3 ~

The question is, “What if you really believed you are the personality of God?” No conceit, no regrets, no more what-iffing—just plain, unadulterated acceptance of that Truth, and then allowed yourself to live in that consciousness? Frankly, In my imaginings, I find the idea of living this way enthralling and exciting, and as I imagine the results of everyone living that way, I get excited beyond belief.

My personality is the same as God’s. It IS the same as God because I live IN God.

Your personality is the same as God’s. It IS the same as God because you live IN God.

At this time, it appears that more lip-service is being paid to the idea of living FROM the Divine and as the Divine, than taking it to heart and actually living this way. What if, from this moment on, more of us go for the whole enchilada, accepting this as true, believing it as viable, living it in every area of our lives, and enjoying the results as we do?

Every longing and yearning we have ever had, every secret desire of our soul, and every constructive ambition we have had is but a whispering of this Power, assuring us that we are One with It, that we are a manifestation or personification of It, that we are a center in It.
~ Ernest Holmes, ibid, 45 ~

From the wings, I can hear God saying, “For heaven’s sake, it’s about time!”

– Reverend Donald Graves

Creating Faith and Possibility from Nothing

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This week during my morning quite time I have been studying faith. What is it, how does one obtain it, increase it and build a life that is reflective of it. In my study I came across this quote from Ernest Holmes in his book Science of Mind; A Philosophy, a Faith a Way of Life.

“In order to have faith we must have the conviction that all is well. In order to keep faith we must allow nothing to enter our thought which will weaken this conviction. Faith is built up from belief acceptance and trust. Whenever anything enters our thought which destroys these attitudes to that extent faith is weakened.” – Ernest Holmes

I love this quote. Let’s dissect it together to uncover what’s there.

In order to have faith we must have the conviction that all is well
To understand faith it is important that we also understand fear and its origin. To experience fear is natural. It was created for survival and to protect us from physical danger. However, fear that results from something other than being attacked by a lion or chased by natives with spears is unnatural. This unnatural form of fear is created by our imagination or the image which we hold within the nation of our mind.

What images are you holding in your mind at this very moment? Do you see images of people that love you, support your growth and encourage openness to new possibilies; of you being thankful for the endless opportunities surrounding you (that you may or may not choose to receive); of how you’ve overcome past obstacles and are now embracing a future worthy of you? OR are you holding images of painful relationships that you have not chosen to accept or forgive, or images of losing a client or a job, of running out of money and sleeping on the street, of a future where you’ve somehow ended your life unfulfilled, settling for memories about dreams of what your life could have become. What images would you like to see? What possibilities would you like to be available? You have the power to choose.

In order to keep faith we must allow nothing to enter our thought which will weaken this conviction.
Having faith is about choosing to see life purely as the symphony it is. It is about giving up the image, opinion or belief that there is something “wrong” with the world, with your life with the people around you. Having faith is finally accepting that ALL truly is well in spite of what you may see with your eyes, hear with your ears or feel as a result of holding disempowering and/or judgment-based images in your mind.

Now, the logical and/or skeptical mind may argue that there is indeed evil and danger in the world and we must protect ourselves. This thinking says that it is short sited and unsafe to live as if “all is well.”

To this thinker, I would suggest that it is short sited and unsafe to live as if “all is not well.” This form of thinking is faith in reverse (fear) and is just as powerful to create and/or destroy one’s life. While there are indeed many forms of danger in the world, danger is not somehow “bad or wrong.” It just is. When we stop seeing life for what it is–neutral yet abundantly generous, and instead choose to assess and cast unfavorable judgment on it, we levy judgment upon ourselves and erode our faith or belief in the abundance and oneness that is.

Faith is built up from belief acceptance and trust. Whenever anything enters our thought which destroys these attitudes to that extent faith is weakened.
What do you believe or hold strongly as an opinion? What is your attitude about this belief? What is your attitude because of this belief? This attitude or way of being can build or destroy your faith and ultimately your life.

How you experience the world is based on your faith. Do you accept life as it is? Do you trust that laws of nature and success will never fail? Do you trust that the laws of love and spirit will never fail? Do you trust yourself to live fully as a part of the all that is? Do you trust that the opportunities and people that are assigned to your life are all there to further your growth and encourage mastery of your thinking and emotions?

You have the power to build your faith? You are building faith at this very moment. What type of faith is it? Does it pull you toward your destiny or drag you in reverse and keeps you in the past?

Bottom line: Building faith and creating new possibility is about choice. Nothing more is required.

By: Michael Tucker

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