Category: Spiritual Living

Friends in Far Places

I’ve met some amazing humans as part of the writing group practice that I’ve been in the past year.

Simon and I first met when we were matched up in a book-finishers group. I knew he was working on a book of bedtime stories for adults, but that didn’t intrigue me enough to read his early drafts. Once I read his draft book in its entirety, I realized he was on to something big. He’d realized that he had been parenting his children the same critical and demeaning way he’d been parented, and he wanted to do a healthier, happier, saner job with his own children.

Simon decided to write about his process of self-discovery, and extrapolated his own self-work into exploring positive techniques of communicating, correcting and engaging with his children, and his wife. His background is traditional fundamentalist Christian, and his mind is wide open to exploring how he can change how he engages with those in his world. I am delighted to have met him and get to encourage him in his progress. He published his initial book on Kindle, with intentions of polishing it, and publishing in print later.

Lately he’s been writing about doing more meaningful work, and deepening his satisfying relationships with the other adult humans in his life. He credits being part of this writing community and getting supportive feedback from all of us for his shift in his way of being. I thought there was probably more to it…

Last night he dropped in with this:

“I have done something every day for over a year now that has had a hugeimpact on my self-confidence. It is called the Self-Confidence Formula, 
and it comes from Napoleon Hill’s Think And Grow Rich. In the book, it 
is phrased as if these things would take place in the future. About a 
month ago, I changed what I say to state these things in the present 
instead of the future. I repeat it out loud, at least once a day.

First, I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my 
definite purpose in life. Therefore, I demand of myself persistent, 
continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to 
render such action.

Second, I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind eventually 
reproduce themselves in outward physical action and gradually transform themselves into physical reality. Therefore, I concentrate my thoughts 
for thirty minutes daily upon the task of thinking of the person I 
intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear, mental picture ofthat person.

Third, I know through the principle of autosuggestion, any desire that Ipersistently hold in my mind eventually seeks expression through some 
practical means of attaining the object back of it. Therefore, I devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of 
self-confidence.

Fourth, I have clearly written down a description of my definite, chief aim in life, and I never stop trying. I am developing sufficient 
self-confidence for its attainment.

Fifth, I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure unlessbuilt upon truth and justice. Therefore, I engage in no transaction 
which does not benefit all whom it affects. I succeed by attracting to 
myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others. I 
eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by 
developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative 
attitude toward others can never bring me success. I cause others to 
believe in me, because I believe in them, and in myself.

I have signed my name to this formula, I have committed it to memory, 
and I repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it is influencingand transforming my thoughts and actions so that I am becoming a 
self-reliant and successful person.

Signed, ___________, September 7, 2020.

I feel amazed, grateful, and exhilarated as I look back over the last 
year and see how I have grown and am growing into this firm declaration of belief in myself.”

Those of you who have read Napoleon Hill’s work, and have done this same practice recognize the covenant. Perhaps you studied it with Keith Gorley when he led a book study on this particular Napoleon Hill work several years ago. It’s not ever just about the studying, it’s about the application and the implementation.

I did smile when I read how Simon had changed Napoleon’s words from future tense to present tense. Good use of affirmations, man! And it’s the consistent, daily practice is critical.

As we move into a month exploring Edwene Gaines’ Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, we get to remember that prosperity is about a lot more than just money. As a member of a fundamentalist Christian faith tradition, I have no doubt that Simon is a tither. Beyond that, if you look at his assertions in his practice with Napoleon Hill’s covenant, you’ll see a very similar roadmap to the one that Edwene Gaines wrote about: goal setting, forgiveness and finding a divine purpose.

I’m excited to see what new pathways open up for those of us who choose to engage deeply with these principles and practices.

–Rev Janis Farmer

Concealing My Natural Bindi, No More

Over the past many months, not seeing people except on Zoom or wearing a mask when I did see someone in person, I stopped wearing any make-up. Now that I am starting to get out and show my face to others more, it was time to re-examined my make-up routine.

I have worn make-up to cover “flaws” and even out my complexion. Taking a good look at myself in the mirror, I noticed that the red patch between my eyebrows appeared more significant than before. It reminded me of the red dot Hindi women wear.

I did not know what it was called. An internet search led me to the following:
… one of the most internationally-known body adornments worn by Hindu and Jain women is the bindi, a red dot applied between the eyebrows on the forehead. … There are seven main chakras that run along the center of the body, and the sixth one (called the ajna chakra, the “brow chakra” or “third eye chakra”) occurs exactly where the bindi is placed.

In Sanskrit, ajna translates as “command” or “perceive,” and is considered the eye of intuition and intellect. … the bindi’s purpose is to enhance the powers of this chakra, specifically by facilitating one’s ability to access their inner wisdom or guru, allowing them to see the world and interpret things in a truthful, unbiased manner as well as forsake their ego and rid their false labels.

… The two physical eyes are used for seeing the external world, while the third focuses inward toward God. As such, the red dot signifies piety as well as serving as a constant reminder to keep God at the center of one’s thoughts. (The Purpose of the Bindi by Shuvi Jha June 5, 2018)

After reading that, I no longer saw my naturally occurring “bindi” as a flaw, something to be covered up. Maybe it’s a little more pronounced these days because my connection with my internal Guide is getting stronger. The inside is being reflected on the outside. I am listening to the internal voice more and allowing intuition to guide my actions. In fact, the intention I have been asking my fellow MasterMind group participants to hold for me is “Spirit Guides me. All is well.” My bindi is a visual reminder of this connection to Spirit. I will now proudly leave it exposed.

Got Critics?

We all have them. If it’s not our own inner critic, it’s our family and sometimes even our closest friends. Through the years I have learned how to tame my own inner critic. Tame my family? Sometimes. Tame my friends? Not so much. I wonder what it is about me, that gives them the freedom/right to voice their unsolicited critical opinion of me, to me. I haven’t quite figured that out yet.

It was a typical Tuesday. A friend of mine walked in my home and saw something that she disapproved of. She stopped, pointed at it and immediately voiced her opinion at me. “I can’t believe you are feeding her this s***!” My body immediately felt a wave of tension rise up from my feet and come out my mouth. In an instant I was in defensive mode. She picks it up and starts reading the ingredients. “I know you don’t want to hear it.”

“No I don’t!” as I looked away. She continued on, and on, voicing her criticism of me and at the same time not wanting to hear my couple-minute-long defense.

Eventually we both dropped the conversation, but I picked it back up as soon as she left. The criticism of me, and the entire conversation, went around and around in my head. She said, I said. I took it to bed with me.

I woke up to a typical Wednesday, and chose to marinate on it all day, feeling my body tense up when ever I thought of it. I just wanted to let it go. I kept thinking, “consider the source” and mentally saying, “Not a word of truth in it.” That continued all Wednesday.

Finally and coincidentally (there are no coincidences) came the typical Thursday. Just like every other day, my day started out with our morning meditation group. During our 10 minute meditation I always read Norman Vincent Peale’s book Have a Great Day – Every Day! This day’s reading was written for me. I have reread it many times since then. This is what he had to say,

“A critic is an asset, though perhaps an unpleasant one. Consider criticism objectively and whether it is justified. If it is, then try to profit by it, even when it is unfriendly. If it isn’t valid, then forget it. Don’t criticize in return, just keep on doing your job to the best of your ability. Sure, it hurts, but we are not intended to go through life without some hurt. We are supposed to make strong people of ourselves.”

Since a critic is an asset, I’ll keep my critics and continue to work on taming them. They are in effect making me strong.

–Madeline Pallanes

Looking Back and Looking Forward. Thanks for Everything!

Janie and I will both cycle off the board early next month and, so, this will be my last newsletter article for now. Writing articles for the newsletter has been a blessing. Rev. Janis might laugh to hear me say that because I often submitted my newsletter article right at the deadline. It is not something that I initially welcomed. The practice has given me moments to look inside and share my thoughts, challenges, and joys.

Writing articles for the newsletter has been like so many things in life seen through the Science of Mind lens. It wasn’t exactly fun at first and, even with this last one, includes an element of difficulty. But the experience of reaching inside and writing honestly about the way my life has been so improved by following the Science of Mind is a privilege.

I am sincerely so much happier because of what I’ve found at CSLT. Compared to how I was back in 2014 when I attended my first service, it’s amazing. It was during tax season in March. A friend told me about attending a CSL in San Francisco and praying with a practitioner. I googled Center for Spiritual Living and discovered CSLT. It’s changed my life. It’s changed my family’s life.

The first class I took was Prosperity Plus II. Mary Morrissey asked for tithing during the class. I just about threw up. I asked all the members of the class if they tithed. I had taken the class because it was the least expensive of the classes and I certainly did not have the funds to tithe. I brought my husband Chris to the class the next week and we dove in.

Science of Mind is a philosophy that I would have scoffed at when I was younger. I had so many resentments in which I lived. Feeling desperate and rageful, feeling like a victim was a more normal emotional state for me. Maybe I wasn’t ready.

We took the first Foundations class with Reverend Donald. I remember how difficult it was to read the Science of Mind. I just could not wrap my head around the readings, so confusing. I practically found it mind-numbing.

Not anymore, I can read the SOM books with understanding and love and receive the essence that the beautiful words impart.

During the Foundations course, Reverend Donald discussed the mantra meditation practice of which he was a devotee. I had been schooled in the same meditation practice in the mid-70s and picked it up again. After practicing it for four months, with a gentle nudge from Rev. Donald to practice it twice a day, I began a daily meditation practice in 2016. That practice has given me the strength to go forward with opening my own business. I have prospered financially.

My husband Chris has joined me in the Science of Mind practice for which I am so grateful. He has found great joy in participating and has been sharing his music with the Center regularly for over 5 years, I think. Serving on the board was a natural way for me to be able to apply the gratitude I feel. It is fun being on the Board.

During the first year I was on the Board, we had regular Board potluck/socials at a board member’s lovely house every month or two. Meeting with the Board is not a chore. I looked forward to meeting with my friends monthly to discuss the business of the Center and to engage in its continuing operations.

Although I will no longer be on the Board, I look forward to continuing participation in the daily meditation practice and to the PP3 Alumni and Intention Setting practice. And I will be leading the movie discussion groups after October. I will continue to be involved in the Youth program, which will resume at some point. I do this because I love CSLT and I love the members and Reverend Janis and the practices. It allows me to flourish and grow and feel so much better and to live with harmony, ease, love, liberation, order and even more God qualities every day.

PS – My favorite newsletter article and favorite project that I’ve done in a class was being able to share the video of the Sandhill cranes that I took when Chris and I woke up so early and made the trek to see them, going early on a Monday after missing them by 15 minutes the Saturday before. Thank you all for letting me share with you.

Love, Marya

Hide The Ball

I don’t know if you remember that old magician’s trick with the usually three upturned cups and the ball that seems to magically move from cup to cup, and the observer never quite knows where the ball is, or how it got there. In one of our Practitioner classes years ago, a dear friend said, “I play hide the ball with myself all the time, and it frustrates me!” When she said it, I realized I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate way to describe how we keep ourselves from knowing ‘stuff’ that we claim we want to know. Most of us do this, at least sometimes. This is not a criticism. I think it’s an aspect of being human.

I’ve been using this pandemic cloistering period to work on my writing practice in a world-wide community of writers. The way this program is set up, everyone has a page of their own as a place to show their work. It’s a little cumbersome until you get the hang of it (like most things are when they are new), but it’s really not hard to find your own page. I’m watching one of my writing friends do his darnedest to keep himself from writing, and letting himself acknowledge that he actually writes well and beautifully. He’s a smart guy. He’s got a successful day job. And he’s got this other side that’s creative, poetic, profound and astoundingly lyrical in its beauty and depth.

This morning I noticed that he’d written an extraordinary piece of incredibly touching poetry on someone else’s ‘page’, and sheepishly admitted that he didn’t know how to find his own page. We’ve been in this writing program for five months. Twice I’ve offered to zoom with him on his computer to show him how to find his own page. I know of two other people, moderators of the writing program, who have also offered to assist him. Someone even made him a ‘how to’ sheet of directions, and he persists in hiding the ball from himself. I just wanted to cry when I saw his commentary this morning.

If we, or someone else, don’t want to know something, there is nothing that can be done to force them or us to see, and know. It’s not like having a puppy and rubbing their noses in it when we catch them peeing in the house. We don’t learn that way. Once we finally do wake up to the game and see though, and are willing to own our own ability, agency, autonomy, authority, responsibility and power, there’s nothing that stands in our way.

Being part of a world-wide writing community is both exciting and terrifying. I was telling one of my artist friends about it, and she was horrified at the idea of showing her work to others as it was in process, specifically so that other people could comment on it. I told her it was really quite fabulous, because one of the rules of engagement in this group was that commenters were required to be constructive, and kind. Early on when I joined this online writers’ group, I noticed the moderators, quickly and decisively, removed two people who didn’t know how to be constructive and kind.

It serves each of us to have a small group of supportive friends, who we trust and who actually have our best interests in mind and heart, and who will help us see our blind spots. Without that, it’s easy to just keep playing ‘hide the ball’, and we don’t learn and grow.

–Rev Janis Farmer

Got Food for Thought?

I once was scolded by a doctor because she thought Sissy was obese. “What are you feeding her? I can’t even feel her ribs!”

I started to tell her Sissy’s diet and she stopped me in mid-sentence, holding her hand up at me. “Stop it. I’ve heard enough. She needs to be on a special diet which we will discuss, AFTER I finish my exam.” She glared at me, stethoscope in hand and listened to Sissy’s heart.

“I’m the one who needs to be on the special diet!” I told her. She rolled her eyes in disgust and continued writing down her notes. Our office visit was quickly over.

She couldn’t help me with my diet since she was a veterinarian. Sissy is my full-figured girl maintaining 160 lb weight throughout the years. For a St. Bernard, that is an average
weight. Since my veterinarian’s office has many vets there, we have never seen that particular doctor since. No other doctor ever scolded me. Sissy needing to be on a diet has never come up for discussion again.

Discussion of me being on a diet, well that’s a different story. I’ve been on many diets in my lifetime and I have to say they have all been successful. I have lost many pounds, almost too many to count. Oddly enough I find the pounds again and lately carry them where ever I go! Nothing is ever really lost. I must say I have never been scolded by a doctor for the weight I carry around. Someday, I’ll let the extra baggage go for good, probably when it no longer serves me.

Since we are discussing diets, here is the food for thought. This is the best diet I have ever been on, and I want to share it with you. You too can do this diet and see immediate results! Yes, you! You don’t even have to be overweight! I know, how can you imagine that? Wanting to be on this diet and you’re not even overweight? Well listen up, this is a really good diet. Try it out, take a bite and enjoy having a great day every day!

Here is a 5-day mental diet. It’s good for healthy mindedness. It will help give you a great day every day.

  1. First day: Think no ill about anybody-only good about everybody.
  2. Second day: Put the best possible construction, the most favorable interpretation, onthe behavior of everybody you encounter or have dealings with.
  3. Third day: Send out kindly thoughts toward every person you contact or think of.
  4. Fourth day: Think hopefully about everything. Immediately cancel out any discouragingthought that comes to mind.
  5. Fifth day: Think of God’s presence all day long.

With great gratitude I thank Dr. Norman Vincent Peale as I found this diet in his book HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERY DAY!

–Madeline Pallanes

A Belief in the Potential Goodness

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What is Hope and why is it so important to sustaining a happier more fulfilling life?

I looked in the dictionary and found different definitions for Hope — words that include desire, anticipation, and expectation. But, that is not really what Hope is about.

The problem with desire, anticipation and expectation is that when a particular thing is not forthcoming, they can disappear, leading to a void into which negative thoughts and feelings can enter. I have certainly experienced this result many times.

Hope is not tied to a particular outcome, it does not depend on certainty, but a belief that there is a potential for something good to happen.

Knowing that ‘something good’ is not specific; it is merely the expectancy of a Positive outcome, which is one of the reasons that spiritual mind treatments are so helpful in redirecting my negative expectations.

Hope is a healer, puts my hurts and pains into a perspective and reminds me that things are forever changing; it is akin to trust that any negative feelings will pass.

Hope is a motivator, and beautiful source of energy that keeps me going when I feel like I have hit a brick wall.

Hope has never been more needed and believed in, than our present time, with COVID and its variants on the rise again. It helps me to know that there is still the potential for something good to come out of it.

I have already seen some positive changes in my own life and the lives of others I know, that can be partially contributed to COVID and subsequent lockdowns.

I see it as a creative opportunity for me to go within and find my true God-self and gain inner peace and trust that life has me just exactly where I am supposed to be.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”
— Desmond Tutu

–Namaste, Janie

Got Relief?

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How do you spell relief? R-o-l-a-i-d-s? How you spell relief tells me a lot about you, without possibly even knowing you. For those of you too young to know, many years ago there was a commercial for Rolaids on TV. In the commercial the question was asked, “How do you spell relief?” The answer was R-o-l-a-i-d-s.

This past month I struggled with what to write about for this week’s newsletter. I kept thinking the words and thoughts would come to me, so I kept putting it off. I wanted the feeling of relief, knowing it was done. Last night as the deadline was drawing near, I received a lovely text from one of my dear friends who happens to be a member of CSLT. I blabbered on about the frustrations I was dealing with and then said, “Right now my mind is bogged down… I’m just feeling slightly overwhelmed… feeling a bit worn out….. but I know this too shall pass and tomorrow will be better.” She replied, “(Big breath in…then out…ahhh) I center and relax in the peace that all is well.” I felt immediate gratitude and joy for her companionship and guidance AND I felt immediate relief.

My morning meditation practice also gives me the feeling of relief. How fortunate I am to be able to rely on my morning meditation to feel relief. Morning meditation is my participation in our daily morning practice of meditation. Often during our discussion, I’ll write down what someone has said so that I can remember it later. Here are some thoughts that have come up during discussion and are held on my refrigerator by my CSLT nametag:

  • Live life on purpose
  • Who am I without my stuff?
  • Help me to understand
  • Divine ideas guide us to the best solution
  • If problems arise, get help
  • What is your greatest worry? Why do you tolerate it?
  • Lead me into situations I desire
  • Leaders don’t have to be vocal
  • Train your thoughts so that your outcome is always good

I feel relief just reading them.
So how do you spell relief? I spell it C-S-L-T.

—Madeline Pallanes

The Value of Meditation Practice

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I am incredibly grateful that I have and use the spiritual tool of meditation on a daily basis. Since beginning my daily practice of Transcendental Meditation on June 10, 2016, I have experienced much change. I credit the opportunity and the courage to start and run my own business to this daily practice.

A change that occurred on July 7, 2016, was the transitioning of my father. Chris and I had visited him the previous November and I met his husband for the first time then also. I had separated myself from my father for many years and had reconnected in the 5 years before his passing. I consider his good energy and spiritual support as a component to my successful business also. He had been diagnosed with cancer only 6 weeks previously and I was to go to the oncologist with him on July 10. He was in Florida, and I was going to spend the week with him. When I received a phone call early Thursday morning on July 7, I knew as soon as I saw my sister’s face on my phone that he had passed. I still carry the notes I made when he told me his body was weak and his spirit was strong along with his obituary in my wallet. I am also listening to my Spotify playlist of Chopin. He used to play Chopin when I was in bed at night, and I have a special place in my heart for this music.

Back to meditation – it is one of the tools that CSL teaches for use in manifesting the Divine throughout our daily lives. Two of the others are affirmations and Spiritual Mind Treatments. I know that there are numerous ways to meditate and the best one to use is the one that you use. What is exciting for me about TM is that I can easily use it.

I am in a 12-step fellowship and the 11th step speaks to employing prayer and meditation. Before TM, meditation meant clearing my mind. Clearing my mind is actually physically painful for me. It is incredibly hard, and I shudder when I consider attempting to do it. I soft of copped-out on meditation considering it as listening to God which I did not do too often. And then in SOM, it was more like I am a manifestation of the Divine and I did not understand how to listen to something I am part of. Now I think of listening to the Divine as accessing my higher self. Which I am able to do at times and other times not.

The first time I took Foundations was with Reverend Donald Graves. He is a devout practitioner of TM. I shared with him that I had taken the classes when I was 19 and had been in a halfway house in Minneapolis. The director of the facility used TM and considered it the basis of her recovery. She arranged for the house to be offered TM classes. My parents paid for it as an investment in my recovery. I took the classes, received my mantra, and practiced for a short period of time. The classes actually felt a little bit like a cult, and I chose to not do continue practicing thinking that if I felt it was a cult, then by practicing TM, I was, in effect, participating in a cult. A little circuitous but I was 19. When I investigated TM in Tucson in 2016, I found out that once you have taken the classes, you have lifetime support. That was good because the classes were prohibitively expensive. I re-took the education part of the classes and resumed a daily practice during the Foundations class.

I happily explained to Donald in June that I had meditated 5 times that week and that the two days I had not done it were due to understandable circumstances. He confronted me! He said it was a daily practice and I either did it or I did not! I was surprised but began the daily practice.

I had one good run that lasted for 2 1⁄2 years not missing a day but have missed two handfuls in the five+ years.

I received guidance from the Tucson TM teacher, Denise Gerace, when she told me about a daily Zoom meditation practice led by Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation. Yes, that David Lynch! He practices, believes in, and supports TM. The Foundation provides TM free-of-charge to inner-city, at-risk youth, to veterans, to survivors of conflicts in Africa and to women in domestic violence shelters, among others. The Zoom is 177-174-913. Bob records live meditations at 8:30am EST and at 6:00pm EST. The meditations then repeat on the hour. Actually, there is a 9:15am EST meditation and then it repeats on the hour. Tuning into these twice-daily calls where Bob speaks for a few minutes on topics ranging from butterflies to neuroplasticity to algae followed by 20 minutes of meditation where he minds the time and concluding with a poem or word-of-the-day has become a favorite time of the day and something I look forward to with pleasure.

It feels great to have a practice that relaxes me and contributes to my well-being and that is fun to do in a peaceful sort of way. I encourage anyone that is interested in TM to contact me. I am open to sharing resources of which I am aware.

–Marya Wheeler

The Contagion of Fear, Or Not

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It occurred to me that for the last 16 months, most of my focus has been on the Pandemic, which appeared to be under control, and now has reared its ugly head again with warnings about possible cardiac side affects from current vaccines for young people, and of course, the new highly contagious, Delta variant that has come front and center.

Thoughts of fear and dread that can easily accompany this information overload have a tendency to overwhelm me. I decided to open up Living the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes and see what he had to say regarding FEAR. I share some of his quotes from pages 362-363, which gave me great comfort.

First of all, if you are filled with fears, do not harbor them as a great secret in your life, but find some close friend or confidant to whom you may unburden your whole soul. This will release the tension, which your fears have built up in your body. Just to talk with a calm, confident person, who can point out the reason why you need not entertain these fears is a great relief.

For the next thing, you must learn to face your fears. You should not be afraid to analyze them and you should explain to yourself just why you know there is nothing to be afraid of.

And the next thing to do is convince yourself that you would not be here were there not a Power greater than you are that put you here. Never be afraid to say to this Power and this Divine Presence: “I now lay down all my fears, doubts and anxieties. I pass them back into the great and perfect Life of which I know I am a part.”

We all need to resurrect this little child within us, who unfortunately has been so buried in our unhappy experiences that we have almost forgotten she was there. But we have not quite forgotten, have we? We all need to resurrect the confidence in life which we had in our youth.

Faith alone can heal this confusion and drive from our minds all thoughts of fear, and dissipate all anxiety. Love alone can bring harmony into our lives. So, say to yourself:

“I lay all fear aside, and in confidence and complete faith I turn to the one perfect Divine Presence, knowing that the light of Truth shines upon my path even as Divine Love guides me to the Secret Place of the Most High, where I dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.

I know there is nothing to be afraid of in God’s world. Fear cannot operate in me, nor can it go forth from me. At the very center of my being there is a consciousness of the protection of Divine Love, the guidance of Divine Wisdom, and the strength of Divine Power..

And I turn in to the great God, who knows all things and who can do all things, and say: “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom; lead Thou me on.”

All of the above really enabled me to change my mind and my mood, and I pray that Ernest Holmes wise words help others who may suffer from fear of any kind.

Namaste, Janie

 

 

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