Limitless Opportunities

Ernest Holmes says there is One Infinite Mind consciously directing our destiny. No mistakes have been made, none are being made, and none can be made.

“Suppose someone says,” he continues, 'I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, I had opportunities I did not grasp.' Every man has this feeling at some time in his life. This is a direct belief that there is but one opportunity which comes to man and if he does not take it he will have no more. This is a belief in limited opportunities and must be denied completely and specifically.” 

After watching the dark southern gothic independent film, “Joe,” starring Nicholas Cage, I found a fascinating story about opportunities lost, then found, then lost again...centered on one of the other stars.

According to Internet articles, Gary Poulter was recruited to play the pivotal role of the ugly, alcoholic, degenerate yet charismatic villain -- a man who beats his son for his day’s earnings, pimps out his daughter for booze money, and kills a fellow drunk for a bit of money and a bottle of liquor.

Poulter was living on the streets of Austin, Texas when casting agents were canvassing bus-stops and street corners for colorful characters to populate the film. Decades of addiction had wasted his appearance, but he had just the authenticity the director,  David Gordon Green, was seeking.

While he easily could have had a small part, the director spotted something special and offered him the third lead if he would commit, memorize his lines, and be on time every day.  He agreed.

Reportedly, although Poulter had youthful acting aspirations, he became a drifter, was in and out of rehab, had an arrest record, had been diagnosed as bipolar, and basically, by age 53, was homeless. Yet here he was, with a totally unexpected opportunity. A new door was opening.

Poulter posted on Facebook: "The script called for somebody that looked like 'An old man, alcoholic, prone to violence, who looked like the aftermath of a human disaster.' My first day of shooting when I went to hair and make up. I asked the woman 'Bridgette' 'Do you need to do anything with my appearance?' She said 'No you're good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' lol."

Poulter committed, stayed sober on the days he filmed, was embraced by the crew, and  blew people away with his embodiment of the role. He was working to put his life back together and even had some promising auditions for roles after the film ended. This was his big break.

Sadly, this was not to be. A few weeks after production ended, he was found submerged in three feet of water near a homeless encampment. He had received medical attention for alcohol-induced seizures a few days before, and possibly this is what happened to him before he fell in the water.

But whatever happened, his time was up. The door closed, but according to director Green in an interview: ”The last conversation we had, he said 'I could die a happy man.’”

Gary Poulter’s life is the stuff of novels and movies. But it also fits with these words from Ernest Holmes:

“If a man has had, and apparently lost, many opportunities, he must be shown that he stands at the point of limitless opportunity; that opportunity is right here today; that he sees and grasps it. It recognizes him as he recognizes it. We exist in Limitless Opportunities, which are forever seeking expression through us.“

So Poulter, standing at that point of limitless opportunity, saw it, grasped it, and left an indelible legacy through his one and only film.

And so it is.

Beyond Limits

Getting beyond our limitations is a popular subject. We see it in movies. In “Unlimited,” Bradley Cooper took a little pill, NZT, which gave him extraordinary mental powers...way beyond the usual 10 or 20 % of the brain that we normally use.  In “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansen accidentally assimilates a powerful drug and continually develops more and more power until she becomes God-like.

So the idea is out there. We know there is more to us than we usually acknowledge or use.

Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, addresses the issue in his book, Science of Mind.  There are 66 references to the concept of limits, including the words limit, limitation, limiting and limitless.

We know God, or Creative Intelligence, or the Universal Spirit...whatever word we choose to use for the Source, has no limits, has no limit to what it can or would do for us, has no limit to its power. Where the limitation comes in is our ability to use this power, this power for good that is available for us to use.

As Holmes says, “Man is unfolding from a Limitless Potential but can bring into his experience only that which he can conceive. There no limit to the Law, but there appears to be a limit to man’s understanding of It. As his understanding unfolds, his possibilities of attainment will increase.”

So basically, we create our own limits. What is it that we want to do, to create, to be?
We have ideas, we get stalled. We lose focus. We procrastinate. We lose belief in ourselves. Our inner critic does a number on us. Who do you think you are? You can’t do that. Get real.

Rev. Nancy Woods and I are teaching a class beginning October 9 called Beyond Limits. I was thinking this could be a good topic for today’s talk. Then I got sleepy and went back to bed.

I had this very vivid dream. I am visiting a zoo, and I’m surprised to find a leopard roaming around free. There’s a handler nearby but he’s very nonchalant and not paying much attention. The leopard leaps up onto me. I feel his claws digging into my skin. He’s not biting; he’s just hanging on. I call to the handler to help, but he’s busy.
I look the leopard in the eye. I start humming softy; eventually he disengages, but I’m upset.

I need to get to another part of the zoo...I see other people up ahead. But I also see Bengal tigers roaming around. Really? Loose? What the....?  I need to get from point A to point B. But through Bengal tigers? Other people have done it. What’s up?

I wonder: Are the tigers real? Are they carnivorous? Are they on tranquilizers? Are they going to pounce on me? I wake up.

So here’s the thing. If I’m going to accomplish my own dreams, I need to get past the tigers. The tigers are my perceived limits. When I see  a video of myself speaking,  my inner critic notices everything that’s wrong and I think...I can’t go forward. I’m too old, too this, too that.

Those tigers, those limits, are blocking my path. And I have all kinds of hidden beliefs about those tigers, those perceived limits. I have to somehow make friends with those perceived limits and move beyond them.


And as Holmes says, “Trust the Universe. God is always God. No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, but always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.”

So on our quest to sing our song, whatever it is, whatever form it takes, we CAN move past our own perceived limitations, our own tigers blocking our path to enjoying all that life has to offer: health, wealth, loving relationships, creative expression, joy and more.

And so it is

Become a Senior Dynamo

The Prosperity Plus class is over but it revived my interest in completing a book I started awhile back: Become a Senior Dynamo. Expand Your Dynamic Range and Live Large in Your Golden Years.

You may be wondering, so what exactly IS a senior dynamo? It’s those of us, in our  later years, who want to tap our inner dynamos of energy and generate our personal power to the max -- to radiate the good health, creativity, loving relationships and financial abundance that form the four pillars of experiencing our best life now.

Even though we may feel ourselves slowing down, experiencing the vicissitudes of an aging body, or possibly seeing dreams unfulfilled,  we don’t intend to shuffle off  this mortal coil with the thought, “It’s too late, now.”

And expand our dynamic range? What’s that? In photography we use the term to describe the luminance range of a scene being photographed, and use different techniques to increase that dynamic range to produce a brilliant, very detailed photograph.

So as an avid photographer, I adapted this phrase to describe a Senior Dynamo...someone who is expanding the parameters of human existence to live life full throttle, someone who is evolving to become more brilliant, powerful, alive, healthy, loving, creative, fulfilled, beautiful and spiritual!


While I stalled on the book, I managed to get started on a senior dynamo website: (www.seniordynamo.com). But really, I want to finish the book. The challenge is that I often don’t feel like a Senior Dynamo.

“Aging ain’t for sissies,” said Betty Davis in her laser fashion. And sometimes I let fatigue, depressed mood or inertia take over. So the recent Prosperity Plus class was helpful, in bringing motivators such as Thomas Edison and the power of FOCUS to our attention.

Edison said, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”  He was an inventor. That’s what he did.  He cut out the distractions and focused on his work. He tried, and tried again. “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 things that won’t work.”

He had the ability to FOCUS on the one thing he was working on. “The difference is you do a great many things and I do one.”

I realized that’s what I’ve been doing. Allowing one distraction after another to steal my time and attention.  I need to clear away the clutter and focus on what matters most. 

That’s the advice of Gary Keller, in his book, The One Thing, The Surprisingly Simply Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. Rev. Mike McMorrow will be teaching a class around this book in September, so we’ll have an opportunity to practice this approach on our projects and ask ourselves: "What’s the One Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? 

For me, it’s not only finishing my book, but becoming a fantastic Senior Dynamo.

Wait! That sounds like more than one thing. Maybe the class will help.

And so it is.

Here's a link to a youtube video of my talk, which starts at the 1:18 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq7CTREth0E

Prosperity vs Frugality

 

I'm wondering about the connection between prosperity and frugality. If I live frugally, am I living with unnecessary limits, blocking the Law of Attraction and financial abundance? According to the Frugal Goddess website, many people associate frugality with lack, but frugality is actually the meeting of your values with your cash-flow.

For example, in nature, says the Goddess, nothing is wasted and we see a model for abundant frugality in its givingness and prosperity consciousness. Also, people are frugal for various reasons...perhaps forced to be frugal due to poverty, or choosing frugality in planning for larger dreams down the road, such as travel or education, or following a voluntary simplicity lifestyle focused on conscious values-based spending.

In the DVD "Low Impact Man," a New York family decides to buy nothing new for a year, and chooses to walk up the nine flights of stairs to their apartment, travel by bicycle, grow food in a community garden, and even give up electricity for a period of time.

I was inspired to give up recreational shopping. I have enough stuff and things, even though I've been reasonably frugal through the years. I live in the same house we bought over 40 years ago, always drove used cars (until a recent splurge on a hybrid), exchanged our home and even cars for European travel vacations, sent our kids to state universities, paid off credit ctd at the end of the month, and so on.

Now I'm challenging myself to really pay attention to my spending and commit to buying only what I really need or would truly enhance my life. I use the public library for books, and only buy if the library doesn't have it and I must absolutely read it. Fortunately, I love to read and the library has an excellent system for reserving books and checking online when they arrive at my local branch.

Entertainment is inexpensive through Netflix or Amazon Prime, and I fortunately have a large screen television we set up when my husband was ill and house-bound. No need for cable or satellite TV with free local digital television plus online streaming. Apparently there is a trend now among Americans to spend less, save more and reduce debt, and there are plenty of online articles on ways to accomplish this.

Jeff Yeager's book, How to Retire the Cheapskate Way, provides many tips for frugal retirement: become debt free, simple-size to save money and reduce stress, and be a good family member, friend, neighbor, community member and all-around Good Samaritan.

According to Time magazine of April 9, 207, frugality can be spiritual. "There is an older path to reducing our impact on the planet that will feel familiarr to Evangelical Christians and Buddhists alike. Live simply. Meditate. Consume less. Think more. Get to know your neighbors. Borrow when you need to and lend when asked."

These are timeless concepts on how to live your best life. True abunadance is not more stuff and things, not necessarily more and more money, but a life filled with love, harmony, good health, creative expression, purpose, friendship, community and joy.

And s it is.

Finding the Four Pillars of Life in Film

I’m a film buff. I love going to movies. And I especially love movies with grown-up ideas that, in some way, demonstrate something of value from the Four Pillars of Life: Health, Prosperity, Creative Expression or Loving Relationships.

While Words and Pictures, a romantic comedy starring Clive Owen and Juliet Binoche, did not receive particularly good reviews, it is nonetheless satisfying in dealing with themes of interest to a mature audience. The two lead characters--Owen as Mark and Binoche as Dina, are creative people struggling with their respective challenges while teaching at an Eastern prep school.

Health:
Dina, a successful professional artist who is experiencing the worsening symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, has left New York and her successful career as a professional artist to teach art at the prep school. We see her struggling to open a bottle of pain pills, exercising on special machines, wearing braces on her hands, walking with a cane, and doing whatever it takes to continue painting her large, colorful, expressive canvases.

Mark, formerly a successful published poet, is now a blocked writer struggling with alcoholism and destructive binges which bring him to the brink of losing his job. He’s an erudite and popular teacher, yet has difficulty inspiring his students to look beyond their smartphones and apply themselves to the language arts, which he loves. He comes alive with an attraction to the new art teacher, Dina, and a lively war about the greater value of words or pictures ensures. He sobers up through AA and makes amends for some of his errors, one of which is plagiarizing a poem written by his son.

Creative Expression:
With Dina, we see the creative artist in action, the challenges she faces, and the way she forges ahead nonetheless. As she scoots along on a swivel chair, she creates huge canvases with passion and flair. The actress Binoche is an accomplished artist who has exhibited in galleries world-wide, so we experience her creative process in action. We also see how she challenges her students to paint with feeling, to seek their own inner truth.

Loving Relationships:
Of course a love story develops: boy wins girl; boy loses girl; boy regains girl. All predictable. But along the way we are treated to a the infectious passion of these creative people for their respective art forms, as well as their bantering and intellectual bickering in the tradition of Tracy and Hepburn.  We sense these adults, moving past their prime, are making a final grab for the brass ring on the carousel of life.

Prosperity: Both Mark and Dina are on the downslope in terms of career success, with Mark losing his job from his indiscretions. We expect a reversal, however. As the film and the war of words vs pictures winds down, we know these two will continue to ignite and inspire each other.

“Thought sets definite forces in Mind, relative to the individual who thinks,” says Ernest Holmes in The Science of Mind.  “We all have the ability to transcend previous experiences and rise triumphant above them, but we shall never triumph over them while we persist in going through the old mental reactions.”

Whether blocked by addictions or physical conditions, like Mark and Dina, or our own personal challenges, we can use our thoughts, our feelings, our passions, and our actions to release old mental reactions and chart a new path to the life that we desire.

And so it is.

Father's Day

 

Here's an interesting book for fathers: In Search of Fatherhood: A Mother Lode of Wisdom from the World of Daughterhood by Kevin Renner.  Inspired by his relationship with his own daughters, he interviewed some 50 women from around the world on ways their lives were influenced, for better or worse, by their fathers.

As reported by Jennifer Willis for The Oregonian, he asked questions such as:  What do I have left to teach my daughters as a father?  What will they long for that they didn’t get from me?  Although his quest involved women and daughters, I think it applies to children of both sex, particularly as I have both a son and a daughter.

While Renner heard painful stories of abuse and abandonment, he also heard stories of wonderful fatherhood.  He saw how the the father-child story can set up the entirety of a child’s life.

One of three things happens:  A child truly gets the "long straw.”...a father who is attentive and emotionally engaged, the kind of father that we would wish for everyone.  Or the child may pull the  “short straw,” in which he or she is abandoned , abused, and damaged in very significant ways.  In the middle is a child whose father was present physically, but distant due to alcohol, work or other addictions, was very attentive yet harsh, or was simply not present due to death, war or imprisonment.

It's unlikely that any father would consciously say, I'm going to give my child the “short straw."

Renner learned that small things make a big difference, and children have memories about little things that say, “You’re important.  You’re desirable. You matter. I value you.  You are valuable.” Even if they never heard the words, “I love you.” 

 I asked my own children, what is your most memorable memory of your father? David remembered an incident at the dinner table.  I, the mother, was trying to get everyone to stop mumbling speak distinctly.  “Imagine you’re dining with the Queen of England,” I said.  To which my husband, Larry responded, with a growl, expanded his chest and cried out,  “I’m the Incredible Hulk,”  as his shirt ripped open and buttons flew everywhere.   So much for royal dining conversation. Humor and fun were important.

David also remembered when Larry would go out of his way to make sure his son had experiences he wanted.  David very much craved to go to a rock concert, so Larry took him to a local club when he was around 15.  Larry stayed in the background so David could go upfront where the action was.

David began chatting with a couple sitting at one of the tables, and they offered him some weed.  He politely said “No, thanks." Then Larry drifted by to say “Hi.”  "Who's that Dude?" they wanted to know, to which David responded:  “Oh, that’s my Dad.”  They didn’t offer him any more weed, with the helicopter parent hovering.

Diana remembers a train trip we took in Holland on one of our European jaunts.  We had reserved seats in a compartment on a train, and when we got there, a man was sitting in one of our seats, the window seat.  Dad pointed  this out to the man, who wouldn’t budge.  There were still other seats in the compartment, he said brusquely.  Diana said she was somewhat ashamed, that someone would speak to her Dad that way. 

But, she said, Dad defused the situation.  Instead of being confrontational, he offered a cup of coffee to the man.  And then in true journalist fashion, began asking him questions...where was he going, was he going to work, and so forth.  And instead of a “suckie” trip, says Diana, with people resentful, angry, or sitting in silence, we connected with an interesting European man and had a fabulous trip.  She says she remembers that incident when faced with a dramatic or potentially confrontational  situation, and looks for ways to make the connection, human to human, the way her father did that day.

In terms of Kevin Renner’s book, I would conclude that my kids got the “long straw,” a father who is attentive and emotionally engaged.... the kind of father that we would wish for everybody in the world.  

For myself, my own father was caring, but emotionally distant. He was from Sweden, tended to be stoic, and relied on our mother to be the "family switchboard." We three children (I have two brothers) knew he was proud of us because she told us so. I don't recall any in-depth conversations with Father, but many with Mother. Still, he took care of us in the important ways, and we had a solid upbringing. Our straw was in the upper-middle range.

About six months before he died, he and Mother made their last cross-country visit to my family in California. He must have known that death was not far off. At the door, as he was leaving, he turned and shook my hand, and said: "It was nice knowing you."

That was a wonderful moment for both of us...his way of saying, "I love you." It's one of my fondest memories of him.

And so it is

Pure Love in Maleficent and Frozen

I’ve been to the movies again. On its opening day, I went to see Disney’s Maleficent and when I came home a copy of Frozen was waiting for me from Netflix. So I saw both films the same day.

And I was very pleasantly surprised. I haven’t watched Disney films since my own kids were little, and a girl, usually a princess or soon-to-be princess, is saved from whatever dire circumstance she finds herself in...by the prince, or some stalwart male.

I remember the song, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and that story has had a huge impact on many girls and women. Snow White in her glass coffin is awakened by the Prince’s kiss; Sleeping Beauty in her unconscious state, after pricking her finger on the spindle, is awakened by the Prince’s kiss...the kiss of true love, and so on. We wait in anxious expectation of being saved by our prince, preferably on a white horse.

But what do you know? Disney has changed the story. And if I may quote Ernest Holmes, our illustrious founder of Religious Science, “Love points the way.” 

True love or pure love, in these films, the love that saves the day, that saves the princesses from their terrible fates, in not true love’s kiss from the prince. No, it’s sisterly love, the love of self-sacrifice that unfreezes the frozen Ana. And it’s motherly love, from the evil fairy godmother now regretful of her early, vengeful curse and now herself transformed by pure love, which awakens Aurora from her deathly sleep.

So I thought, how wonderful that my granddaughter is growing up on these stories that show females to be strong, independent, courageous and loving, rather than meek, passive and submissive. 

The stories we tell ourselves are important, and many of the stories in films today are about the exploits of men and boys. Stories of war, conflict, fighting and the explosions, death and destruction that accompany them.

I see a lot of action films, and I enjoy them, but it’s like a breath of fresh air to see a film that extols the value of love--and love that goes beyond romantic love, or lustful love, to the pure essence of love. Even when women are protagonists in films today, such as The Hunger Games or Divergent, they are imitating male behavior. Fight, fight, fight.

Apparently Frozen and Maleficent are successful commercially, making millions of dollars for Disney. Some critics feel Maleficent is hijacking Frozen’s storyline, as though the concept of pure love can be hijacked. It’s something we intuitively know, and perhaps are desperately thirsting for, after a steady diet of male-dominated violence and death in film after film.

So what is pure love? From John 13:34, 35 in The Science of Mind we read:

 “Love is an essence, an atmosphere, which defies analysis, as does Life Itself. It is that which IS and cannot be explained; it is common to all people, to all animal life, and evident in the response of plants to those who love them. Love reigns supreme over all.

 “The essence of love while elusive, pervades everything, fires the heart, stimulates the emotions, renews the soul and proclaims the Spirit. Only love knows love, and love knows only love. Words cannot express its depths or meaning. A universal sense alone bears witness to the divine fact: God is Love and Love is God.

And so it is.

I Am the Star in My Own Story

There is one Creative Intelligence, one Life Force, and one Essence that is in all and through all and is all.  It is the Creator that creates all. It creates me, flows through me, supports me and expresses as me, is me.  I am Creative Intelligence in action.

And right here and right now, I declare that Creative Intelligence provides all that I need and more. I express unlimited power of the Divine Source and demonstrate my unique gifts and talents. I jump-start my greatness as I take to the stage of life. I trust my own intuition and the guidance of the One. I allow myself to be as creative as Spirit nudges me to be.  I live large.  I easily navigate life’s trials and tribulations and have the energy and escape velocity to move forward in a dynamic and productive way.  I nurture my faith and know it supports and guides me out of my comfort zone into the realm of infinite possibilities.  I expand my dynamic range and live full throttle, in the overflow of health, wealth, creative expression and loving relationships.  I am a star on the stage of life.  I am the star in my own story.

I gratefully receive and give thanks for my ever-expanding personal and spiritual growth and more. With joyous expectation, I release my word into the Law of Mind, knowing it is already so.

And so it is.

I Am a Player on the Stage of Life

As there is One Power, and I am one with that Power, I declare this to be my truth.

I am a player on the stage of life. I play many parts as I enter and exit the different steps of my experience here on this plane of existence. I know that I am human as well as divine, and I balance these two areas of my life. I accept my failures or weaknesses as opportunities to expand, grow and learn as I evolve into my Christ consciousness.

I work to bring my thoughts, feelings and actions into harmony with the Divine Order. I am willing to be worthy to demonstrate the Divine in my life, and know that as I evolve my spiritual nature, I attract all good into my experience.  I dance with the Beloved within. I see the Beloved - the Divine - reflected in the flower, rocks, trees and all things material, as well as in me. With love, I am set free to live fully in this world, to be a player worthy of a Divine Oscar.

With gratitude and love, I release my word into the Law of Mind, knowing that it returns to infuse my life with strength and power.

And so it is.