Bringing New Thought and zombies together

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The Miracle Worker

"My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed!" - Anne Sullivan



If you have read the classic story "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson, you already know of the struggle it took for Anne Sullivan to bring light and learning into Helen Keller's life. Sullivan and Keller go hand-in-hand, quite literally, in the latter's life story of overcoming darkness to find true enlightenment in this world.

Today is Anne Sullivan's birthday and serves as a lesson for those educators and mentors who often grow weary and frustrated in their work against all odds. Yes, there are those among us who choose to remain blind and there are those of us who soldier on and never surrender in our daily war against ignorance and metaphysical blindness. We can open our eyes if we want and we can when we have inspirations such as Anne Sullivan in our lives.

We all have our road to Damascus or our water pump where our minds awaken to the reality of our potential to opening new doors to the future. Anne Sullivan opened that door and ushered her young charge into a new world and a greater future. It took two, however, as this 'Aha!' moment broke new ground for the student to move forward upon her new found epiphany with her teacher.

Whoever your guide is in life, know that that person or persons are catalysts who merely help you find your voice and your spark. It is up to you to light that fire and keep it burning for yourself and your world.

Happy Birthday, Anne Sullivan!

We live again

In “Talks on Truth,” Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore urges the disciples of Christ to ‘raise the dead.’ The shrouds of death may not be visible to our eyes, but we each know a Lazarus who awaits the quickening that only Truth can provide for being born anew.

When the sun rises each morning, our physical bodies go through the movements and motions of the day, but often without purpose. The routine of our lives becomes the shroud that cloaks our brilliant spirits from the dynamic world of the living.

Those who truly live are able to consciously live each moment of their day with an awareness of all that we do. The roads each morning are populated with self-driving drones that happen to have someone sitting In the driver’s seat.

The coffee that is supposed to sharpen our senses creates a false reality of being awake. We know this because our make our daily commute in a fog of unconsciousness that may be punctuated by the perfunctory ‘good morning’ and saluations that we share with our colleagues.

When we work this way, we are mere instruments or tools that are part of a larger, lifeless machine that pays our wages but does litle to foster the life that we wish to support. We prosper in our pay but atrophy in our daily transactions with our clients and customers.

Many of us openly wonder if our ideals are dead. We recall the years of our youth when we dreamed of a world where we were truly following our ambitions and surrounded by hope.

Since those halcyon days, we are led to believe that adulthood has no time for our starry-eyed optimism as it is not practical or relevant to what we are doing today. The only thing missing is a death certificate.

The naysayers and critics around us think that they are helping us when they discourage us and they shame us into believing that we cannot achieve our potential. We fail to realize that ego-driven attitudes serve to keep us underfoot so our so-called friends can climb over our metaphysical corpses.

These crosses that we bear in life and the caves in which we entomb ourselves do not have to be the end of our story. The message behind Easter is that we can breathe new life into ourselves and resurrect the spirit within us that wants us to live the life that we are truly mean to enjoy.

When the sun rises on Easter Sunday, this is a moment of clarity for us to seize and embrace. We can remove the shroud and we can push that rock that blocks our own caves. We can step out into the daylight and claim the rest of our lives with joy knowing that we are living eternal life as taught by the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

Our mental and physical withdrawal from our world can and will be reversed by finally appreciating that our presence requires our presence. Besides simply showing up wherever we go, we must enter every room and every place with the essence that expresses our true being.

As Fillmore said, death is the cessation of our vital functions without capability of resuscitation. We know that death is a lie in this sense. Our time for resuscitation is now. Our time for applying the story of Easter to ourselves is now. Our time for being born again is now.

Happy Easter!

Solstice and solace

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

The Sun ran away early in the evening to join the surfers down in Australia and left me with a cold feeling. Really, I had a cold feeling because the mercury dropped into the fifties here in Jacksonville, Florida. Before the catcalls emerge from those winter-worn folks to the north, I count my blessings that I am indeed not shoveling snow, but making plans to mellow out to Jimmy Buffet’s rendition of ‘Christmas Island.’

The shortest day of the year came and went without the predicted pomp and circumstance of an untimely end of our world. In defiance of the Mayans, our gods had other plans that they have yet to reveal. Besides, the interminable Christmas shopping season must go on.

I emerge today from a week of being sequestered in my home to recuperate from a sinus infection and know that my hibernation was brief. The clouds lifted from my head and my lungs and gave way to a ray of sunshine that allows my holiday cheer to be as warm as even Ebenezer Scrooge would begrudge.

I scurry to mail my Christmas cards to those who sent me holiday greetings, but I missed on my own Christmas card list. I pick up my laundry from my beloved mother who still wants to be a mommy to me and I delivered my family’s presents to place under the tree. I dined on bean salad with old friends. The mundane, however, is punctuated with a festive spirit that even a trip to the credit union or car wash if pregnant with anticipation of our annual celebration of Christ’s arrival in our world.

As I take time to honor and observe the brilliance of the season, I ponder how far I have come from the darkest days of Christmas past. Depression made my days seem longer and my patience shorter. I was angry with myself for my station, or lack thereof, in my life. I battled internally over the struggle to choose between what I wanted and what was expected of me. I was losing the fight and wanted to end it all.

Hospitalization, medication and therapy did wonders for me to pull away the dark curtains that blocked my light. I lingered yet in the lack of answers to my questions until I finally drew upon an inner light that truly allowed me to see the Light that enlivens our holiday season.

I turn 38 on Tuesday and I know that my birth on this most sacred of days has a meaning that I must apply to my own renewal as I approach my forties. The burnout that nearly destroyed my spirit and the enemies both real and imagined, I decided, are no match for the hope that resides within me for a more peaceful world within and around me.

To ignore the good that enriches me would be to betray the birth, youth and growth of someone in whom many good people have invested their friendship, love and time. Yes, the leaves have fallen from the trees and the air turns chilly yet again. The darkest hour today is before the dawn of a new revolution of our mortal world around the mighty Sun. In this completion of yet another cycle, I am glad and rejoice in it.

Under my spiritual tree, there are two presents. One is marked fear and the other is marked faith. When I wake on the 25th of this month, I know which gift is mine and which one to exchange for something greater. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

Happy Constitution Day!

We the people... These three little words kick of the preamble to a great document that serves as the foundation for our nation. These three BIG words affirm the I AM of a nation that, for all of its faults, continues to serve as a civilization that aims to lead the world in freedom and liberty. Two centuries after the Founding Fathers created the Constitution, we have our doubts about how our nation is progressing or regressing and yet we must observe this day every year to educate Americans and the world about how our user's manual for a nation should be maintained and executed. Cynicism has taken hold of our national dialogue in the years since Vietnam and Watergate but we can think of no other way to move forward together. For all of the talk about how the system is broken, we forget that WE THE PEOPLE are the heart of our republic. When fear takes hold, we ignore the Truth that our nation is guided by ideals that are greater than our petty squabbles and that it is up to us to fix our supposedly broken system. When we engage in the necessary troubleshooting to right our course, we must remember that our user's manual is the way to ensure that we get things right for posterity. We need not fear our future if we are faithful to what the Founding Fathers fought and died for to break away from an old order and to create a new system. Party politics aside, we can come together and we can achieve a common goal to continue to lead the world in freedom and liberty. Our world is filled with uncertainty and questions. We are plagued with problems and issues that seem to impede our growth. What is the solution? WE THE PEOPLE! HAPPY CONSTITUTION DAY!

9/11 - From grief to grace

I was teaching English at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida when the towers fell. My heart sank when I received word from our security officer that the World Trade Center was struck again. I recalled the time in 1993 when the World Trade Center was first attacked and it never occurred to me that these mighty towers would crumble like my heart would that horrible day. The outcry was swift and brutal against those whom we believed to be behind this act of terrorism that killed over 3,000 people. The anger was understandable, but it often manifested itself in violent words and actions that victimized innocent people who happened to share a faith that was perverted by an evil few. Having returned home from the United States Air Force, where I served as a medic at Dover Air Force Base, the memories were also fresh of being part of the ceremony in which the bodies of those who perished in the attack on the U.S.S. Cole were repatriated to America. I also knew that, as a new Uniteens sponsor that I could do something to make a difference in how we reacted to this crisis. Through fate or Divine Order, our Uniteens group had a lock-in scheduled for that weekend. While our original purpose was to have fun, we faced a more solemn task when we gathered for our weekend sleepover. That weekend, we prayed and meditated over the tragedy that befell our world and we prayed and meditated over the world that we were responsible for co-creating with God. Moving forward, I challenged myself and our Uniteens to reach out in Spirit to find the common good in all. After that lock-in ended, I decided that I would incorporate ecumenical lessons into our curriculum. I found a book that was based on the HBO documentary, "How Do You Spell God?" I also purchased a copy of the video to share with the Uniteens. I felt that it was especially urgent to learn more about world religions and faiths because, when I was in junior high school, I held onto the belief that we were either Christians or we were nothing. It was simply how I was raised as a young Baptist before I joined Unity. This was no simple task, but I chose to make it engaging and joyful for our children. We created mandalas, we performed service projects and we connected with other Uniteens' groups in the spirit of the world that we wanted to see become a reality. I also decided to leave my own complacent comfort zone and attended Saturday meditation at our local Buddhist temple. I also attended synagogue in the San Jose area of Jacksonville - and attended my first Bar Mitzvah. These were the lessons and gifts that I wanted to use to ensure that over 3,000 people did not die in vain. Healing is not easy, but it was something that I felt that it was a task that we were all up to taking up as a cause for life. We can still observe 9/11 through enlightening ourselves to vanquish the darkness of ignorance and hatred. This is our call and this is our cause to ensure that future generations will never have a day like was had on that fateful Tuesday. Epilogue: This morning I attended Sunday morning worship service as usual, but was treated to something unusual. One of the Uniteens who attended our lock-in during that week in 2001 started volunteering in our Sunday school today. I am very proud of her for not only enriching her life through Unity, but serving a new generation of Unity students in a spirit of love and light!

Power to the people!

We are not powerless. When we say that we lack power or strength, we are affirming not just the negative, we are telling a serious untruth about ourselves. We are all born with an indwelling and innate power that propels us into this world of the living and wakes us to a new day for the entirety of our lives. Power is not some abstract dream of absolute control. That is the abuse of our natural powers that were meant for good. Power is a natural force that we harness each day to bring about the best in our world and is a natural force that he harness each day to build a world that works for all. Call this internal engine what you want - God, Light, Spirit, Life, Truth or whatever - this is the motivation that is readily available for us all of the time. What is my motivation? What is your motivation? It depends on what your purpose is in this world That is not for me to decide for you. You must take charge and decide why you do what you do or do not do. What I do not believe in is allowing our engines to idle when our work is yet to be complete. I learned this important lesson once upon a time when I was in high school and president of my Youth of Unity (YOU) chapter in Jacksonville, Florida. Please forgive me for revisiting this topic as I have touched upon it earlier in my blog, but this experience is what directs my actions today. In the early 1980s, our church experienced a terrible split over differing philosophies about what Unity means. There were no heroes or villains, just friends who disagreed and decided to part ways. This parting of ways was never meant to be the end, but the beginning of new Unity in our community. Instead, it marked the beginning of exile for brothers and sisters in Truth who shared the same path with my church community. When I was elected to be president of my YOU chapter, I was only sixteen years old but I knew that power meant nothing if I did not express it for the good of my community. With the lessons that I learned in Unity, I reached out to our friends across town. I paid the price because this was not a popular move - especially for a Young Turk who was not supposed to know any better. Yet, I did not walk away because the Truth is what ultimately set us free from the bondage of division. I did not walk away because my brothers and sisters in Truth did not allow me to. Instead of being discouraged, I wanted to do whatever I could in my power to bring more Unity into the commUNITY. It did not matter if I was elected, appointed or chosen to do so. We have the power of ourselves and not position to affect change. Did it help for me to be a member of my church board of directors to continue bringing our Unity churches together? Yes, it did. It also helped that I was surrounded by friends and family who supported me every step of the way. When I saw our former ministers return from a long exile to visit with us, it made me proud to be a 'Unitic.' Their return marked a homecoming for the true unity that brought us to the movement in the first place. Do not misunderstand, power does not necessarily mean that we have to move mountains every day. The power that we have speaks to its own strength. Our power may manifest itself in moments, minutes, months or even beyond our lifetimes, but we do indeed have the power to make things happen. Namaste

Believe! - New lessons for YOU

Photo: (Pictured from right) May Rowland attends the cornerstone laying ceremony at Unity Church of Jacksonville at the corner of Lomax and May Streets with Rev. William N. Grenson and Rev. Dr. Bonnie S. Grenson in February, 1950 as featured in The Florida Times-Union.

This is a lesson that comes from a time of crisis - over half a century ago. When May Rowland wrote "Dare to Believe," it was a world that lived under the shadow of the Cold War. She wrote in her book of daring to believe in Truth through all crises big or small. Today, the Berlin Wall no longer menaces Western Europe and we freely exchange with China and Russia. We still face new situations and challenges that seem today as formidable our adversaries were once back then. I have created "Believe!" based on Rowland's desire to promote right thinking in a modern world by adapting her classic book into a series of lessons for today's youth. I have geared the lessons toward the basics of Unity that form the foundation for the principles that today's Youth of Unity are learning and promoting. I am self publishing this material and am shipping my book to those who wish to pay for a copy. Please see my PayPal link to order a copy today!

You are an angel!

Years ago, when I was a delegate to regional and international Unity retreats and conventions, I was blessed to enjoy Karl Anthony's talents as a great singer. Although I could not carry a tune in a bucket or keep a key (I was booted out of chorus in elementary school, natch!), I loved hearing Karl serenade us with "Angel, angel, you are an angel...I see an angel in your eyes." This week, I have an angel in my life who has blessed me with a $1,500 donation to my upcoming pilgrimage to Israel. I am almost halfway there and I am more than a year away from heading out with Rev. John A.V. Strickland and the Atlanta Unity delegation to the Holy Land. Anything, I have learned as a Truth student, is possible if I put my heart and my soul into achieving my goal. My benefactor shall remain nameless as requested, but we all know that this person's light shines brightly through their faith in me to be the best delegate that I can be. If you would like to donate to my cause, no contribution is too small. Please see my previous post about how you can help. Anything is possible when we set our sights on putting UNITY in the commUNITY! Namaste.