Category: gratitude

We Plan and God Laughs….

Welcome 2024 and thank you CSLT for the opportunity to serve as your Spiritual Leader. In the words of Socrates, “The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Or, a simpler statement might be, “we plan, and God laughs.”

A year ago, I had no idea walking through the doors of the LTW last March would place me on a trajectory path of becoming your new minister. What I knew at the time, is I fell in love with a spiritual community, and I hoped I would be asked back to speak. Over the course of last year while you were creating your covenant of intention, I was playing the role of a teacher in a Montessori school in Tempe. (Having left my pulpit and Center of 12 years in California, because I decided to get married.) I thought being a schoolteacher was my “new ministry” working with kids and I was okay with my new role.

However, my 5-year plan of the Montessori assignment was to be cut short after only a year, as “God was calling” again. I received two “nudges” during this last year from “the universe” to go back into ministry. It’s as if God gives me a few hints of where I should be, and I often have chosen to say, “eh, later” and push it aside.

Not the right answer, you don’t ignore the universal “I have this for you.” In my experience, the third nudge is usually a drastic change when the spiritual 2 x 4 hits me, sending me flying into my purpose.

The positive side of my flying lesson was everything began aligning for my husband Charles and I to be here near Tucson. A home we had admired for months became available for purchase, and we did. As we went through the process, I began looking at the school district to teach within a Montessori school.

However, the next nudge came in a call to action from a dear friend and colleague telling me, “Tucson is waiting for you, you need to apply for their pulpit.” After many heart-leading discussions, Charles, a retired UCC minister encouraged me to apply as the window of opportunity was closing quickly. In September, with a week left, I did.

As I filled out the spiritual leader documents to be sent to the search committee, I discovered the God presence within me was calling me to my highest good. My heart has always been in ministry, and it took a small but mighty spiritual community to be that light of “this is your purpose” leading me out of the dark hallway of “what’s next?”

It is with a grateful heart, I look forward to being your spiritual leader, teaching not just the principles of Science of Mind, but other faith traditions, and how all interact together in the great metaphysical beingness in our daily lives. Religious Science is truly a philosophy of how to live in unconditional love and be unconditional love to all we interact with.

Ernest Holmes our Founder wrote in his book, Can We Talk to God? “Of what value would a religion or philosophy be to the world which simply taught it a few laws of cause and e8ect, or how to heal a pain? This is good and wonderful, but unless it teaches how to live and how to be, unless it gives something which is a divine certainty of life and being, it is useless.” (p.11.2)

I look forward to our relationship of not just Sunday celebrations but classes, holidays, and the unknown unscripted adventures of the heart. Please know my door is always open when I am in my o]ice at Craycroft, and reachable through email if you require support for any life situation. I love you all, and thank you for all that you are, and all that you are becoming. I look forward to getting to know every one of you!

–In love and gratitude, Rev. Rhonda

Gratitude 2

Gratitude is one of the chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity. (Ernest Holmes, The Hidden Power of the Bible, 171)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am going to Piggy back on Chris’ blog from last week using the practice of Gratitude Rainshower. (Join Sharon on Tuesday November 28th at 6:30 p.m.on our Zoom channel).

I am grateful for the cooler weather and the migrating birds that have appeared at the feeders outside my window. I am grateful for the Source of all creation for creating the world of symmetry, balance, harmony, beauty, of stillness and movement.

I am grateful for a home, and a partner to share it with, and with friends. I am grateful for eyes to see, ears to hear, for health and vitality.

I am grateful for our CSLT community which helps me deepen my relationship with the One Infinite Mind, through our studies, reminders, music, and interactions.

I am grateful for Sharon inviting speakers, and for the speakers coming to our community to reveal their relationship with Spirit.

I am grateful for Rev. Dr. Kathy Hearn coming in March to lead our co-creation process with our congregation, revealing that Wholeness is the top quality we want for our center. And for the beautiful Sacred Covenant we have spoken for the last 9 months.

I am grateful for all the work of the Nominating Committee for creating the video and profile for calling in our new minister, and the guidance of Rev Julie in the process of putting all the pieces together for our posting on Open Pulpit.

I am grateful for the board’s time, talent and treasure making sure all the behind-thescenes work gets to keep the business of CSLT working.

I am grateful for our Sunday Services the musicians, hosts, greeters, LTW technicians, altared states providing a beautiful setting, meditation leaders, speakers, and participants, live and on Zoom.

I am grateful for you all….

–Maria

Thanksgiving Becomes Gratitude

November and the holiday known to Americans as Thanksgiving rolls around every year. We reflect on many aspects of the history and the holiday. Eat variations of a feast. Often make statements to the effect that another year has flashed by. Then set our sights on the next holiday, Christmas. While I was preparing for this article, I checked the etymology of Thanksgiving. Then I looked at early American history and some of the stories that surround the initialization of events that led to the creation of the holiday. Interesting Site Here

The recovery communities often suggest gratitude practices to temporarily alleviate old attitudes and behaviors long enough to begin replacing them with healthier ones.

Gratitude practices can help you focus on the positive aspects of life, which can lead to a happier and healthier you. Gratitude is a powerful emotion that can have a positive impact on your overall well-being. Gratitude can be instrumental in centering yourself and helping focus into the present. There are many ways to integrate gratitude into your life, such as:

• Keeping a Gratitude Journal: This involves writing down three things you’re grateful for each day. It helps in focusing on positive aspects and cultivates a habit of noticing things to be thankful for.

• Expressing Thanks to Others: Showing appreciation to people, whether friends, family, or strangers, can strengthen relationships and spread positivity.

• Reflecting on Positive Experiences: Taking time to recall and appreciate the good things that happened during the day helps in acknowledging and being thankful for those moments.

• Noticing Abundance: Being mindful of the abundance in your surroundings, whether it’s nature’s beauty, opportunities, or other resources, and expressing gratitude for them.

• Attending Gratitude Events like “Gratitude Rainshowers” at Tucson’s CSL: Participating in events focused on gratitude can be a communal way to celebrate and practice gratitude. The next Gratitude Rainshower is Gratitude Rainshowers

• Don’t forget the apps. If a nudge is needed now and again or you prefer the digital realm there are quite a few apps that can facilitate gratitude formulation.

• For a quick set of gratitude prompts ask chatgpt “What should I be grateful for?”

Engaging in a practice of gratitude aligns with research that shows how gratitude positively impacts mental health, relationships, and overall happiness. Integrating gratitude into daily routines can gradually cultivate a mindset centered on appreciation and positivity. Gratitude becomes really easy with a small amount of practice.

–Chris Wheeler

Celebrating the Ancestors

Samhain, Halloween, All Saints Day, Día de los Muertos – it is the season when it is believed the veil between the living and the dead becomes thin. It is a time to celebrate and remember those who have come before, the good and the not so good, all of those who have contributed to who we are today.

I first became personally aware of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) when I moved to Bakersfield. Every year there was a celebration with food and music, shopping, and my favorite, ofrendas, the family altars remembering those who have passed. As a gringa I wondered if I could fully participate in what has become, for me, a blessed celebration. Worried about being politically correct, and sensitivities to cultural appropriation, I thought about how I celebrate my ancestors. First, a brief history of the holiday.

Indigenous people everywhere had and continue to have rituals honoring their ancestors. Samhain is a pagan festival that is centuries old and is still celebrated by Wiccans and Pagans around the world. As Christianity moved around the world, Samhain was appropriated as All Saints Day, celebrating the Catholic Saints. All Hallows Eve became Halloween (with its own origin story). When the Conquistadors arrived in the Americas they brought their Christian celebrations with them, overlaying All Saints Day on a centuries old Aztec ritual and celebration. This, over time, became Día de los Muertos celebrated through much of South America.

At the heart of the Día de los Muertos celebration is the ofrenda. On Saturday, I attended a workshop at a local Pagan/Metaphysical store on “How to build an ancestor altar.” They suggested several points on why it is important to honor our ancestors. First, creating an altar helps us build spiritual connection with those who have come before. Next, it is a beautiful way of honoring and preserving our cultural traditions of how we celebrate our loved ones who have passed. Creating an altar helps us to heal and have closure with those who have left with unfinished business. Our ancestors provide blessings and protection. Finally, they say honoring our ancestors helps to create balance and harmony between the living and the dead.

So this year, rather than carving pumpkins, I am creating my own ofrenda. I started with finding a space that I can dedicate for the week. I selected a cloth to ground the space and am gathering photos and mementos of those I wish to honor. I’ve already pulled a beautiful picture out of a photo album of my father and his father, my grandpa, that I am now looking at. It fills my heart with joy to see these two men together in my home.

From Ernest Holmes: “According to Unity of Mind, thought is everywhere present, and so long as it persists it will remain present. Time, space, and obstructions are unknown to Mind and thought. …If we persist after the body shall have suffered physical death (and we are convinced that we shall) this law must still hold good, for past and present are one and the same in Mind.” The Science Of Mind 352.

I invite you to set aside some time this week to thank your ancestors. We wouldn’t be here without them.

–Sharon Whealy, RScP

Friends

Friend [frend] (noun) – a person one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.

Due to recent events, I have been thinking a lot about friends and friendship lately. Just as there are different types of love, there are many different types of friends.

I celebrated my birthday last month. That always brings phone calls from friends I’ve known for a very long time, some of whom I may only talk to once or twice a year. The conversations flow as if we had just spoken yesterday. We catch each other up, talk about what is on our hearts or just chatter. An hour or two goes by before we finally say goodbye.

Last week I traveled to Prescott at the request of a dear friend to attend her party. To see her face light up when I entered was priceless and filled me with just as much joy. A long hug followed. Hopefully it won’t be years before we do that again.

The day after the party I stopped by the Unity Church I attended when I lived up north. I caught up to a girlfriend where we talked about our spiritual journeys that have led us both to CSL. Another familiar face just embraced me and smiled.

And there are the friends I talk to and see on a regular basis, sharing everyday events as they occur. We may chat about this and that or maybe simply sit in silence appreciating each other’s presence.

My acupuncturist and I have a unique relationship. I spend about 40 minutes with her every other week. We’ve come to know a lot about each other’s lives and likes/dislikes over the decade I’ve been seeing her. I count her as a friend also, especially when she came out of Covid retirement to treat me.

There’s the neighbor I wave to on my morning walk and the one I invite over for dinner. And the favorite barista who knows how you like your coffee without having to ask. They serve it to you with a smile as you wish them a good morning, enriching each of their days.

“If you are going to gain anything in life, gain a friend. They will always be there and that makes all the difference in the world.” finetofab.com

“Good friends are like stars: you don’t always see them, but you know they are there.”

“A silent communication takes place at all times between friends.” SOM 421.4

–Janet Salese

Prosperity by Living As …

As we prepare the way for our new minister I was reflecting about our center as – Vibrant Thriving Prosperous Center.

“We believe that the Universal Spirit, which is God, operates through a Universal Mind, which is the Law of God; and that we are surrounded by this Creative Mind which receives the direct impress of our thought and acts upon it.” CSL Doctrine

“We enter into harmony with the Law of Increase by actually becoming a person of increase. A Person of increase is a person who leaves each person or situation they encounter better than they found it. A person of increase is a person who offers to be of service, a person who offers praise and a person who lives from gratitude. This type of person has the mindset of service. When you do this, you allow the increase to move through your life. –Mary Morrissey (modified)

“Giving is Better Than Receiving Because Giving Starts the Receiving Process” Jim Rohn

We are moving into October and October’s theme is prosperity/abundance. I began to reflect on my experiences and how they have changed. My fears and scarcity mindset were changing even as I was approaching my involvement with CSLT. My wife convinced me to enroll in Prosperity Plus II.

Mary Morrissey presents a convincing and compelling case to reconsider our relationship with abundance and prosperity. Mary relates many personal anecdotes from her challenging experiences. She speaks to her own challenges surrounding survival and money. And conveys principles and spiritual laws that allowed me to take up her challenges to give to CSLT the tithe amount of 10% of all my income and give of my time to the tune of 4 hours a week.

I had taken the course because I was hoping for more information on how to create wealth. As it turns out what I walked away with was a newfound relationship with giving.

“Giving doesn’t really empty our soul, it literally expands us” Mary Morrissey

–Chris Wheeler

Got Tears? by Madeline Pallanes

Most recently I have been experiencing intense emotions. If you’re anything like me (and I’m sure you are) you already know these emotions have a direct effect on our bodies and mind. Daily, day to day emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, momentary anxiety etc.) generally  come and go throughout our day.

Did you know these emotions are created by our brain based on previous experiences? We all know how our body feels with these different emotions. I’m sure you have heard, how we react to the physical feeling we all experience, has a profound impact on our body & mind. But did you know our bodies naturally know how to heal these negative emotional feelings? Yep, it’s true. One way our body starts healing the feelings and releases pent-up emotions, is by crying. Crying is good for you! I cry a lot.

Research has proven that when we experience various intense emotions, the hormones in our body raise. Our bodies naturally create these extra hormones. Research has also found that in order for our body to return to its natural hormonal state, the extra created hormones are released through our tears. This is why we always feel better after a good cry. Women have more hormones than men, which is why women generally cry more than men.

Since my body already knows how to naturally heal itself, I wonder about my mind. How does that naturally heal itself? My guess is that you already know the answer to that. Science of Mind. I study, absorb, practice, and live the teachings of Science of Mind. One practice that has been most beneficial to me, is participating in our Daily Morning Zoom Meditation Group. I hold deep gratitude to this group for helping me to heal my mind. Our group is open and welcoming to all who want to join us. How about you?

–Madeline Pallanes

Let Go and Let God

When we do this, just trusting the Spirit and not laying down the particular details of its action – just telling It what we want without dictating how we are together – we shall find that things will open out more and more clearly, day by day, both on the inner and the outer plane.

–Thomas Troward, The Dore Lectures, page 190

Many times, I think I should have specific goals, obvious things I can manifest. I did want to be debt free and have a new car that was paid for when I retired, and that I did manifest (unknowingly). But mostly I have wanted a full and rich life. One aspect of full and rich has been the front yard with its hollyhocks and sunflowers. I did want those flowers, so I planted seeds, and they grew. And over the years the row of hollyhocks became a forest without my planting more seeds. The yard brings joy to my neighbors and double joy for me, first in the flowers and second in watching people stop and look or take pictures. My desk window faces the front yard and the other day I watched the post-person drive up to our mailbox, take out their camera lean out the window and take a photo. I get so much delight from these moments.

For years we have had one penstemon plant in the yard, this winter and early spring as I was weeding, I’d look at the plants and question, “Is that a penstemon?” The answer was yes, and there are over 50 plants in the yard. I didn’t plant any seeds, God, the master gardener did. And the yard this year was not only beautiful, but magical.

Birds, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, and a mouse also inhabit the yard. I’ll look out my window and see a rabbit or white winged dove hop up the stairs and walk up the sidewalk like a visitor. Or notice a mouse or lizard on the branches of the bush outside my window. The details of this joy I couldn’t dictate, yet the fullness and richness I desired has been manifested.

I recognize that my part in co-creation is to accept my unlimited good with wholehearted conviction and let the Law of Mind do the rest.

–Rev. Joanne McFadden, Guide for Spiritual Living May 2023, p 50.                           –Maria

A Thank You for Teachers and What They Taught!

Thank you, Reverend Janis!

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 crea:ve 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. Ernest Holmes, A New Design for Living, page 55.

When I first walked up to CSL Tucson at the Gregory School, I was early and looking for the meditation gathering. Reverend Janis (then a practitioner) was speaking with Keith Gorley. I interrupted them and Reverend Janis pointed me towards the entrance to backstage, where it was being held that day. After my first exposure to CSLT I felt that I had found my community.

At the time I was blessed to have a place to stay overnight in Tucson and could easily attend evening classes. A friend had moved to Hawaii and let me use his apartment on occasion while he was gone.

I attended all four of the Basics talks given by Reverend Donald Graves on Monday nights at the office. I showed up for Sunday services and took the next offered Foundations class. That was an awesome class of about 14 to 15 individuals, and I experienced a sweet closeness and camaraderie with several of them. Today at CSLT only Pat Masters and I remain as regular attendees.

I appreciated Reverend Donald’s manner of teaching Foundations. I enjoyed his Sunday talks, even some of the jokes. His energy and presentation of practical applications of Science of Mind principles helped this newcomer greatly. For a couple of years Reverend Donald was the face of Science of Mind teachings for me. I was living across the state when Reverend Donald retired.

Last year Keith Gorley made his transition. I participated in several book studies that Keith facilitated. I found him to be a dynamic model of wisdom and honesty and a genius at holding a safe space for participants’ vulnerability. Keith was special.

I have taken Foundations twice yet never got the degree of clarity I now have until being a student of Reverend Janis. Her instructions and practical exercises for Affirmations and Spiritual Mind Treatments have greatly benefited participants in her classes and workshops. She is a skilled teacher and mentor.

I was living part-time across the state for 5 years because in 2014 I became a grandmother. CSL in Lake Havasu City, AZ relied mainly on visiting ministers at the time. One Sunday the visiting minister was Janis Farmer!! I was so happy to see her that I shed tears of joy and took her to lunch where she filled me in on the changes and goings on at CSL Tucson. And now our beloved Reverend Janis is retiring. Personally, I will miss her.

Change sometimes brings sadness. Yet I must ask myself, how can my dominant feeling for these teachers be anything but Gratitude? They introduced me to Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind, and a new design for living. So, I remain open and optimistic about our future at Center for Spiritual Living Tucson. I am trusting the process. Especially I want to be ‘be here now’ and enjoy the journey.

To Reverend Janis I say, Thank you; I wish you peace and many blessings in your upcoming adventures.

 

–Linda Bullock

CHANGE

Change like Time continues because it must. The Multiverse exists because, among other things, Energy is inherently not static.

My belief, since we are conscious manifestations of this Energy sometimes called God, is that we are always at choice:

We can be carried along and mindlessly accept the consequences of the operations of the universe.

We can follow the various states of emotion that have been pre-programmed into our subconscious and act or react from a place of an old story that has made its way into our current state of consciousness.

OR we can use our innate abilities of choice to influence our experience.

Change however it initially presents itself is inherently open for interpretation.

Whenever possible I try to move into the vantage point of excitement and opportunity. My desire to experience the universe with Positivity and Joy appeals to me and is conducive to the life experience I am wanting to have. Sometimes when a situation is presenting in a particularly troubling way, making a statement to myself such as “It is all for my good” or going directly to “Thank you” avoids the possibility of a period of unhappiness.

Sometimes my first reaction to a situation is one of emotion. Not always a good emotion, and I can experience pain around events. I find that identifying what I am feeling helps to process the feeling. If it is a feeling that causes discomfort, recognition is the first step to processing the feeling and changing the interpretation of the event.

A phrase that I identify with is “I am doing better than I am feeling”.

Gratitude even for things that do not fit our dominant view of reality can free our receptivity to re-interpret any event and open us to the next changed state of mind.

Rev Janis leaving CSLT is part of the flow of events. Having her as minister has been a wonderful experience for me. For which I am most grateful, and it also brings to mind these words from Dr. Holmes:

“The Thing simmers Itself down to this. Can we in the midst of negative conditions, accept a greater good”. If we can we shall be complying with the law of Life. We shall be giving Life a chance to work for us.

And so It is.

–Chris Wheeler

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