My mother was very active and always looked younger than she was She never liked people to know how old she was. When she turned 80, I wanted have a party for her, but she refused. She didn’t want any celebration at all, so we honored her wishes. When she turned 85, my brother and I planned a surprise party for her. Fortunately, we knew that she loved surprises (some people don’t), and we wanted to celebrate her many years of life experience. We invited her family and friends and exactly 85 showed up. We had a wonderful celebration which she loved, and finally everyone knew her age. (more…)

I believe you and I were made, given this mysterious gift we call life by an entity, by an all-powerful being, God, self-described simply as love. And I believe we are akin to this being. In fact, I believe we are patterned after this being and that we possess the same kind of power that this One possesses. This power is love and it is at the core of our identity. (more…)

Lilly asked me if I had any thoughts about the service. I read her this poem I wrote in 1995

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In olden times speech had a different purpose.
Red would be described as
“Red - as the color of the blood shed by our Lord Christ Jesus
when he was on the cross to take away our sins.”
and not just red, but everything was specified that way
which now seems strange, but which helped souls
remember who they were, their purpose and their goal.
This is not the way we speak today and we have lost some
sense of cosmic place and the meaning of our lives,
not that I’d resurrect the old, it does not fit for me.
Today in meditation I focused on the light stream
through my body, seeing light, asking that today
I am aware of being filled with light and being in the light.
I do not talk of red as the color of the blood
of someone dead two thousand years, and still,
there’s something I am trying to recall.

There was recently a Woody Allen interview on NPR. He was asked if his personal philosophy was as dark as his films. I’ve seen several - Love and Death was memorable. Mr. Allen said that he was much taken by a story he heard about two women at an American plan [meals included] Spa. One woman said, “The food is very bad here.” The second said, “Yes, and the portions are so small!” This is kind of his ongoing guidance. The food is bad, and the portions are so small. Life is full of troubles - and short. (more…)

As remarkable and wonderful as life can be, there is no escaping the fact that tragedy and heartache are very much a part of it. Human suffering and misery is all around us. Everyday the news is full of stories of tragedies and challenges. We are often confronted with disturbing images of suffering and strife. Here lately, with the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, we are powerfully reminded of the unavoidable certainty of tragedy.

And sadly, although our thoughts have focused lately on these quakes and the unimaginable challenges facing those affected, Haiti and Chile aren’t the only places where people are confronting overwhelming difficulty.

The images from these quakes have been very disturbing. The attention the news media has given to this catastrophe has reminded us of the horrors so many of us face.

The images show the face of unspeakable tragedy, real human suffering. Think of it, lying in pain on the street with broken limbs, no one to help, no one to give you medication or water or food or move you or help you with toileting; lying in pain, infection setting in, crying out and no one to bring relief; dying a long painful death. (more…)

.”God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”

I remember a time when I used to be too afraid to laugh. I wasn’t sure of anything - not myself, and definitely not who or what God was. I still don’t have a well defined explanation of “God”. I just know that things are thrown in people’s path, either by a God, the Universe, or Life in general, and we must deal with them. There are a multitude of ways we can handle these challenges. For me, I have learned that my best tool with which to deal with challenges is humor. Whatever struggles dealt to me by “God”, the Universe, or Life in general, well, along with those struggles, I was also dealt this sense of humor, along with my questions about my spirituality. Humor came first and has been the gateway to my spirituality. Without humor, I would not have been able to get to the place I am today. Without humor, I would not have discovered my spirit.
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Official Definition of “Therapeutic Humor” according to The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH)
Any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations.
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This intervention may enhance health or be used as a complementary treatment of illness to facilitate healing or coping, whether physical, emotional, cognitive, social or spiritual.
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What is “Spirituality”
Spirituality is a way of life that is not religious, but honors the soul and the belief that there is more to life than physical things.
. . . . having to do with deep, sometimes religious, feelings and beliefs, including a person’s sense of peace, purpose, connection to others and beliefs about the meaning of life.
To me, my sense of humor [has helped me develop my spirituality by allowing me to] connect with others on this Journey through life. (more…)

As simple as this approach sounds it embraces many of the ideas found in traditional religions as well as new age prophets like Wayne Dyer, Abraham-Hicks, and Marianne Williamson. Even the Dahli Lama advocates the art of happiness as one of the most important disciplines we can cultivate. Why happiness rather than say goodness or godliness or any number of other virtues? Haven’t we all experienced the way happy people bolster our sense of well being? Don’t they make even the most mundane jobs seem less boring and the truly difficult jobs a little less onerous? Don’t you find that you laugh more in their presence? The happiness they share can also bring healing, hope, and gratitude. It connects us with Spirit and with the goodness of life.

So how do we create more happiness for ourselves and those around us?
I was fortunate to have a friend suggest that I read Abraham-Hicks latest book, The Vortex, which ended up becoming the springboard for this service. In the preface it says, “At the hub of these teachings is a profound concept: the basis of life is freedom; the result of life is expansion-and the purpose of life is joy.”
Freedom, expansion, joy-at first glance these may not necessarily seem to go together, but after reading The Vortex, I can appreciate how they are at the very heart of creating.
One thing I appreciate from my time spent with Journeys is how my concept of God has expanded, because of the freedom of spiritual exploration Journeys promotes. One of the few constants that scientists agree on is that the universe is constantly expanding. Abraham-Hicks would add that the universe, and everything in it is made up of vibrational energy that is expanding. (more…)

 When I began thinking about what I would say this morning, one of the lines from the song you just heard, “People”, popped into my head – “People, people who need people are the luckiest people in the world”.   But despite the fact that I own nearly every Barbra Streisand movie, I’m embarrassed to say I only knew the one line.  So I had to Google the lyrics.  I was surprised by how simple yet poignant the words were.  I particularly liked the line “But first be a person who needs people.”  Above all else, it’s saying, be someone who understands the need to connect with other people.  I believe this is the why we are here, the purpose of life, to connect with other human beings.

I think it’s a bit difficult for us Americans to admit that we “need” other people.    This country was built on the idea of individual freedom and independence.   Over the past 200 some odd years, the meaning of the word “Independent” has turned into something that encompasses much more than was originally intended.   When I think of someone who is described as being “independent”, I think of someone who is strong, capable, smart, self-aware.  These are the adjectives I’ve used when I’ve proudly commented about my 9 year old daughters independent spirit.   Being independent is something we aspire to.  And, as we age, it’s something we desperately want to maintain. (more…)

Fourth stage we say ‘yeah, sure out there - but also in here’ -and we touch our chests to indicate that there is a part of the divine within each of us.

Since I learned the Fowler stages and studied at Unity I’ve thought of myself as fourth stage.

From W. Va I returned to Tucson briefly and visited St. Francis of the Foothills; a 4th stage Methodist church. I returned to Huntington and looked for a church like that one. We got a lot of house visits from ministers following up on our one visit to each church. All were third stage. We needed to chose a different path.

Now I picture myself on a ladder climbing toward the light - and usually I know and feel that the light is already glowing within me and I see my self and the people I do my spiritual practice with all climbing toward the light and we are all lit from within.

Just one thing - with that vision of the light within it is easy to develop an sense of ‘I am not third stage’ an arrogance or specialness.

For Fowler 5th stage is becoming aware there are many paths to experience the divinity within. [visual - many ladders grounded in many faiths and people on them are all climbing toward the great light and all are lit from within. Great visual]

and if you look at the bases of the ladders you see all the faiths represented.
And now we are ready to LIGHT THE CANDLES for all faiths.”

CANDLES

(more…)

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I had a really peaceful childhood. There was no violence in our little mid-western town. Then when I was 11 I sat by an upright radio console and listened to America being told that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I planted a Victory Garden when my uncles fought in the Second World War. The war did not touch me very much. I remember not being able to make fudge which I loved because our sugar was rationed. (Small sacrifice) I only saw a little about the war on the black and white newsreels at the local theater when I went each Saturday morning to to watch the cowboy movies. I lived through the Korean War, the advent of the atomic bomb and the violence it created, I was scared when Kennedy announced the Missile crisis, cried for 3 days in front of the TV when Kennedy was shot. It was then that my worldview was shattered. Until then I could not believe that a President in our country could be shot.

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Of course I knew that others had, but it wasn’t in the world I knew at that time. Then Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy. Then the Ohio students being shot, the riots at the Democratic convention, the civil rights demonstrations and the demonstrations against the Vietnam war and we were participating in them. It was a frightening time, and there was so much violence. Life was not peaceful.

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Then came the violence that would change our way of life in the country - probably forever. 9/11. It was shortly after that Journeys held our first service. After 9/11 I think we were all stunned, and we sought one another out to be together to grieve and find a sense security. Many, many changes have followed including the tightening of security at airports and buildings, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the many loses of privacy, the color coded heightened security announcements, shootings in schools, abortion clinics, and even churches and in Columbia neighborhoods. Indeed we are living in a very troubled world. And sometimes, I think that times are worse now as we are so connected around the world and there is much global unrest. The history of the world is full of wars and rumors of wars as the Bible says. (more…)