Autumn 2008

There is a quote by Anais Nin that has touched my heart for years. It is "there came a day when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

I think that my life may be at that point now. I think, for many of you, your life is also at that point. I know it is true of our Center.

When I arrived here almost two years ago, I could sense that this place was on the verge of something amazing. I know that is true now.

Our entire international organization is on the cusp of an amazing transformation, and we are prepared to be swept along with it...

But first, let’s talk about you and me.

You have heard me say many times that we can only get out of something what we are willing to put into it. We can show up on Sunday and listen to the message and say hello to our friends and talk about how great this teaching is – but if that is all we are willing to invest in it, we won’t get a very good return.

It is living this teaching day by day that brings the rich and abundant blessings of Life to us. Our role is to test this teaching; to put the lessons to work; to study what it means to practice the Presence. Our lives become rich and full only when we invest our selves in the growth process.

The real way of learning how to utilize this teaching is to take the classes. It is in the classes that the practical experience of applying the lessons is clarified. It is in the classes that new friendships are forged. It is in the classes that our limits are stretched and our growth defies our expectations.

The Science of Mind is both a philosophy and a way of life. It asks us to see everything and everyone as sacred. Everything. Everyone. No exceptions. It asks us to become conscious of the things we say and think, because the universe has no choice but to mirror back to us our beliefs.

When we really get this, we can’t remain tight in the bud any longer. We are compelled to burst fully into the blossom of who we came here to be. We are moved to express to the world the limitless possibility inherent in our very being.

There is a segment of the population known as Cultural Creatives. They cross gender and age boundaries, and they comprise 25% of the world population. These people believe in the sacredness of the planet, in equality for all peoples, in a family of humanity that is one. And, for the most part, they have no idea that anyone else feels the same way. They are hungry for what we are teaching, and we are prepared to feed them!

Through the work of our organization, the possibility of changing our names nationwide has finally become a reality. The people who have been afraid to check us out because they were confused by the words Religious Science, will not have that roadblock, as Religious Science International is now International Centers for Spiritual Living.

We will be having a special Global Growth Sunday on September 7, where you will get a chance to hear about how we are growing around the world, and what impact that has on us here in Eugene. We will have an international-theme potluck after the service, followed by a Town Hall Meeting.

At the Town Hall Meeting, we will share with you the findings of the branding research that has been done on our faith, and share some exciting opportunities for our center to reach into the community.

We will no longer remain tight in the bud. Not as individuals, not as a Center, and not as an organization. The world is ready for us, and we are ready for the world.

Take a class. Come to the Town Hall Meeting. Bloom!

Blessings and Love,

Linda

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Summer 2008

Mid Year Course Correction

Can it be that we are really at the mid-point of our year? How quickly the time flies; or so it would seem.

This is our proclaimed "Year of Significant Living." It is our intent this year to begin creating the space in our lives for powerful growth and the revelation of our essential nature. What we truly have set forth is the idea that who we are, authentically, is more important than anyone else’s idea of us.

Metaphysical teacher Eric Butterworth often spoke of "releasing our imprisoned splendor," and that is just what we have set about to do this year. There is a wonderful gift in each of us, something that is ours to do and to be, and we are stating our willingness to let it come forth.

So, perhaps this mid-point in the year would be a good place to look and see if we are on track to create the change we have yearned for in our lives.

Early in the year, we looked at the questions we could ask ourselves to help us remained centered. Whenever "stuff" comes up, can we stop, take a breath and ask:

Can even this be God?

Do I need to carry this with me any longer?

Who am I being called to be right now?

Wouldn’t it be great if (fill in the blank) were happening right here?

We are asked to accept and embrace the mystery of God in all things. The fact that anything exists at all is truly a miracle, and we remind ourselves to experience that delight, as a child would.

We are asked to begin putting our faith into action, by turning within, to God FIRST, before we step in to "fix it" – whatever IT might be! It is about moving our focus to what we want to experience, instead of trying to fix what is. Because ultimately, as Dr Holmes has reminded us, our task is to be "for something and against nothing."

This does not mean that we are not doing anything. It means that we stop wasting our time fighting with current conditions and have the boldness and daring to imagine NEW ways of living and being in the world.

We are the ones that we have been waiting for. We have the tools, and now is the time. I know the remainder of this year is going to be an amazing and wonderful experience for all of us, as we hold our vision of what CAN be.

Blessings and Love

Linda

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March/April

The arrival of spring is fast upon us. I have been observing the robins and blue jays gathering in yards for the past few weeks, resplendent in their bright spring colors. The crocus are popping up everywhere, and tips of other spring bulbs are cresting green through the soil.

Everywhere we are reminded that the barren times of renewal are followed by the rebirth of life and the promise of a new harvest coming down the road.

Virtually every culture has some sort of spring festival marking the movement of the sun to the point of equal daylight and dark. Virtually every culture honors the awakening of the plants and the hibernating animals as they shake off their winter rest time. Virtually every culture asks us to look beyond the surface of things as they are to see the messages that they hold for us.

The Kabbalah is the study of mystical Judaism. It tells us that if there had never been a book of spiritual laws written we would still be able to know how to live, because the Creator provided us with plants and animals and tides and seasons. The fullness of creation is a guide to us.

We are told that "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." The lessons we receive from nature are rich and abundant:

The waning and waxing cycles of the moon remind us that there is a time to go within and plan, and a time to work towards the fruition of our plans.

The movement of the tides tell us that there is a time to advance and a time to withdraw.

The bulbs and perennials and deciduous trees tell us that even though things may appear over and done with, life still exists at the core of things, ready to take shape at unexpected moments.

If I could ask you to focus on one lesson this season, it would be that there is a Law of Circulation. Our breath circulates oxygen. Our heart circulates blood. Our body systems circulate chemicals and healing energy to areas of infection or injury. Circulation keeps us alive.

You have heard what goes around comes around. As you sow, so shall you reap. It is said in so very many ways, and it all comes down to this – If we want more of anything in our lives, we must move it around, circulate it. Whatever you would have more of in your life, learn to give more of it. Our world is a system, and each part supports the other parts. If you want to receive support, you must give it. If you want to be in the game, you have to play.

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January/February

The old year ends and the new one begins. The old calendar comes down from the wall and a new one goes up. I recently attended a marvelous movie, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. It begins with the narrator saying that no story ever can end without a new one (or more) beginning.

Life is but a series of endings and beginnings, deaths and births, falling and rising up again. It is in coming into synch with these cycles that we find our rhythm of life.

There are endings that we mourn - and those that we celebrate. There are beginnings that we anticipate, and those that we dread. The tide comes in, the tide goes out, and still, life moves forward, with or without our consent.

Where were we all this time last year? Could you have predicted everything that has transpired this year? I am sure I could have guessed a couple of things, and I know there are things I would never have imagined possible. Life simply moves through the beginnings and endings, and we decide whether we will fight or embrace the experience.

It has been said that pain is inevitable. While I am a practicing Religious Scientist and know that I create my reality, I have to admit that my experience of life has been that, like it or not, pain really does show up from time to time.

What makes the difference between pain that heals and pain that turns to suffering is how I respond to THIS particular ending or beginning. If I fight what is– if I rage against the injustice of it all– if I use my current experience as "proof" that nothing is fair in this world, then suffering is pretty well guaranteed. That’s the option I have selected.

If, however, I step into the experience of the pain and say, "why is this happening FOR me?" and "what can I learn from this that will move me to where I want to be," the pain - the obstacle - becomes the doorway to transformation. It becomes the beginning of the new story, filled with potential and possibility.

In the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, every obstacle in our path is considered a pathway to God. It is in those things that appear to block us that we find the healing we have been seeking. But only by welcoming the experience do we gain this benefit.

Next time you find yourself resisting a change - be it beginning or end - try surrendering to the experience; follow the path all the way to the heart of God. You will be blessed in more ways than you can imagine.

Blessings and Love

 Rev. Linda

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November/December

Nature tells us it is time to come home early, sleep in, and stay by the hearth. At the same time, the world declares a set of holidays, demanding that we stay out late, dress up and over-extend ourselves physically and financially. What’s a person to do?

Perhaps this year we can declare our own rules for what works for us during the year-end season. Historically, this is the time to "evaluate the harvest." What worked? What did not? What do you wish you had ‘planted’ instead of what you did?

Each of us can take a look at the actions of this year and see what we would like to replicate in the coming year, as well as what we would like to avoid, and what we might still be able to salvage. It is not about guilt or remorse - it is simply about an honest assessment of what’s been going on.

I heard a line some years ago, I think it is from George Eliot, that said "It is never too late to be who you might have been." It is not too late right now to make this year a good one. To plan the coming year. To see where you want to go with your life.

Is attending one more holiday party going to enhance your life? Is giving one more "little gift" going to enrich the recipient? What would be the best use of your time and resources right now? Only you can make that decision. Only you can know what would serve your soul the most.

This is not about getting anybody else to change - it is about doing what feels right to you. It is letting the silence inform your thinking and then your actions. There is a Power for Good in the Universe, that is greater than you are, and you can use It.

At the first of December, I will have been with you a year. For me this has been a marvelous time of getting to know you and deepening my sense of my ministry, and I am blessed to be here. Please consider what would make the coming year richer, fuller, more satisfying to your soul - then let’s come together and make it happen right here at the Spiritual Growth Center. Volunteer to serve, take a leadership class, join a visioning group, let your soul guide you to your next right step. I look forward to being there with you.

Blessings and Love, Linda

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September/October

Even though it has been years since I have attended public schools, September still brings to mind the energy and excitement of returning to the classroom for a new year. With new book covers and binders, new clothes and shoes, and new stories about what happened over the summer, it was always a treat to be there that first day and to see all my friends again.

Maybe I feel this way because in Science of Mind we still structure our accredited classes around the standard school year. Maybe it is simply one of those thought patterns that is planted so deeply I haven’t given any thought to releasing it - I assume it is simply "the way things are!" For whatever reason, I truly relish the return of September and the promise of autumn coming quickly on its coattails.

Our spiritual community continues to grow and expand in so many ways, and gathering on Sundays is just one of them. Our wonderful curriculum of accredited classes is designed to help deepen and enrich our spiritual experience of this teaching.

Our Sunday message gives you ideas to ponder and tools to use in the coming week. It is designed to open you up and help you connect to the Truth. The classes we offer are set up to help you take those ideas to a whole new level of understanding. You could liken Sunday to the topping... it is certainly pleasant, but you have a sense there could be more; while the classes offer the actual slice of cake - giving you more substance and a better sense of satisfaction.

I love the "a-ha" moments in class discussion, as people begin to get the understanding of how to create deeper and richer lives for themselves. I love the friendships and connections that are made as we share deeply in class and learn how much all the other people have so many of the same experiences that we do. More than anything, I love the fact that every time I teach a class, I learn as much or more from the students as I do from the material!

Maybe this is the year you decide to see what these classes are all about. Maybe this is the year you take the leap and go deep with Spirit into the Truth of who you are. Maybe it’s time to start rediscovering the beauty of learning just for the sake of your very own soul.

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Summer 2007

"Summertime, and the livin’ is easy." Or so Mr. Gershwin told us. I have loved almost every version of that song that has ever been recorded... maybe because I finally began to realize (later than I might have) that living is as easy as we are willing to make it!

Most of my Summertimes were spent in Nebraska, visiting my grandparents and cousins. My mom taught school, so we had the whole summer off. That is where we went every year until I graduated from high school.

My grandfather and uncle were both farmers, so for me, July and August meant family 4^th of July picnics at my uncle’s home, complete with fireworks... County fairs where my cousins got blue and purple ribbons for raising and showing sheep... making food for the harvesters who came through to thresh the wheat fields... sweet corn ripening, and whole batches of family gathering, shucking, cleaning and blanching sumptuous golden kernels to put in the freezer.... and birthdays! Three of my cousins and I, along with one aunt, all had our birthdays within a week of one another.

Each of us has memories of summers that bring smiles to our faces. We like to think that things were so much simpler back then, but the truth is, things are as simple or complicated as we make them.

I hated the corn harvest day as a kid - the weather was unmercifully hot and muggy; the boys were always dangling corn worms in your face; and when we finally finished and ate from the banquet lunch of country cooking that all the women had brought to share, we had to snap beans, as well! The payoff was that when we finished all that, they would drive us into town so we kids could go swimming at the city pool for about an hour.

It’s funny. I don’t remember anything about those swim trips, but I remember so many details about the work days. And that is the part of the summers that I miss. Mowing a full acre of lawn around my grandparents’ home once a month. Going to the church to do yard cleanup. Helping move irrigation pipe from field to field. Those are the things that bring me smiles and make my heart yearn for those "golden times."

I have lots of good memories of play times, but I have deeper, and more satisfying memories of times spent in service to my family, doing chores and tasks that contributed to our homes and our lives.

Seva is a Sanskrit word meaning selfless service to God. In our teaching, we know God is all there is - each of us is an expression of that One Life, so each of us is God expressing. Therefore, when we serve one another, we are serving God. It is truly in the giving that we receive.

May your summertime be filled with blessed opportunities to give and receive the ease and blessedness of this season.

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