I Walk In A Cornucopia of Good

As there is one Power and I am an expression of that Power, I know that my word has Power. I know that my thoughts have Power. I lift and shift my thinking to address the challenges in my life, as well as to change the conditions in my world.  I draw on the spiritual directive, the directive of belief, knowing the answer to my prayer is in the prayer itself.

I know there is a Power for good in the Universe, and I can use it to demonstrate good in my life, and in the conditions of the larger world. I know I am walking in a field, a cornucopia of good--the primordial essence from which all things are made -- and from which I draw my own substance and supply. I direct my consciousness toward expressions of love, peace, harmony and respect for myself, and for the conditions I want to see change in the world. I knock on Heaven's door, and I am heard. I speak my word to the cosmic Essence and experience the reply. There is only One Power, One Source, One Life, and that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now.

With love and gratitude, and from this cornucopia of good, I release my word into the Law of Mind, knowing it returns to me multiplied abundantly.

And so it is.

Happiness

I recently became a grandmama again, with the adoption by my son and his wife of a beautiful baby boy. Their journey to adding a child to their family has been long and challenging, and now their desire has materialized in the form of little baby Hunter. When I look at their gallery of photos posted on the Internet, I see tangible "happiness." They may be tired, but they are very, very happy.

So the subject of happiness is on my radar. What constitutes happiness? We all seem to want it, sometimes we search for it. It can mean different things to different people. For David and his wife, it's a new baby, and gratitude for this expansion of loving relationships. For others, it can be radiant good heath, close friends, success on the job, financial freedom, a burst of creativity, or a spiritual "aha" moment.

Recently I saw the film, "Hector and the Search for Happiness," starring Simon Pegg as a successful psychiatrist disenchanted with his life...which he perceives as humdrum. Although he is living a life of privilege compared to most of the world, his patients bore him and his long-term relationship with his fiance, Clara, is stagnant. He decides to throw everything aside and research happiness, keeping a journal of his findings. He wonders, Is there a secret formula for happiness?

After each adventure or misadventure, he draws conclusions in his journal, such as:  making comparisons can spoil your happiness; a lot of people think happiness is being rich or important;  avoiding unhappiness is NOT the road to happiness; happiness is answering your calling; happiness is being loved for who you are; fear is an impediment to happiness; happiness is feeling completely alive (this after barely escaping death at the hands of kidnappers); or happiness is knowing how to celebrate. Basically he is on a journey of self-discovery, learning who he really is.

His big aha comes when he is rigged up to a machine which visually shows, in real time, his brain and how it reacts to different emotions.  He realizes that unhappiness for him would be losing Clara, and happiness would be becoming the man she would love to spend her life with. As his emotions unblock, the machine reveals to Hector that happiness is everything, especially LOVE.

As Ernest Holmes says, " Let us waste no further time looking for the secret of success or the key to happiness. Already the door is open and whosoever will, may enter.”

And so Hector enters, realizing in the end he already has the key to happpiness. He simply lifts and shifts his thinking, or as Ernest Holmes says, "Change your thinking, change your life."

Even Abraham Lincoln said: “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” And from Dale Carnegie, “It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” 

So for Hector, as well as for all of us, we can know this:  If there is a secret or key to happiness, it’s already in us, in our thinking, which we can change and thus change our lives.

And so it is.


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A New Life

The big news for me this week is that I'm a grandmama again.  My son, David and his wife, Rachel, just adopted a beautiful baby boy and they are now deep in the throes of parenting.

Their journey to parenthood has been long and challenging and it's so moving to see them with their new son.

 Last summer David came down from the Bay Area to visit me, and we went to a picnic held by the adoption agency with which they were affiliated.

It was wonderful to see all the couples with their adopted children, and to know that so many adoptions were successful. There were also couples who were aspiring to adopt, and had yet to hold a baby in their arms. Those with babies told their adoption stories ... sometimes of several failed attempts, and then final success.

David and Rachel had already experienced one failed adoption. They had been matched with a birth mother in Missouri, had made a trip there to meet her which had been promising. They went back for the birth only to have the birth mother change her mind.  What a disappointment!

But I knew the right and perfect baby would appear.  And it did. The birth parents...both teenagers...were sent a box of 100 brochures with profiles of the prospective parents-to-be, including  David and Rachel’s.

The profile resonated, a meet-up trip was taken to Oxnard, reasonably close this time, and all went well. They came down for the birth last week, stayed with our relatives in the area, and also spent a night with me.

That night was interrupted at 3 a.m. ... they got word that labor had begun and they were off to the hospital, where they had their own room and took care of the baby shortly after birth. With an open adoption, both families have expanded.

There are a number of poems on the Internet about this moment. There's one that I love, "I am so very special" by Karen Heeney at poemhunter.com.

Life is a gift.

And so it is.





I Choose the Right Path

God is. I am. I am an individualized expression of God in action here on this plane of consciousness. I am Spirit having a human experience.

I stop, I look, I listen at the crossroads of human events and conditions around me. I become aware of the power and presence of God leading me to the right and perfect decision, the right and perfect path through the maze of earthly conditions surrounding me. I know God as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient -- the one Power -- and know that I am one with that Power, that All Good Power. As an emanation of Spirit, of that All Power, All Good, I answer the call to bring that Good, that Power, that Light and that Love to this plane of existence, and to be an agent for positive change here and now. I allow the Infinite Power to express through me one transaction -- one transaction of human interaction -- at a time. I am straight in my own consciousness. I practice the presence. I dwell in the secret place of the most high.

With gratitude, I release my word into the Law of Mind, knowing it returns to me multiplied abundantly.

And so it is.

Leverage

As I sat down to work on my Creative Thought recently, I did my usual rambling around the Internet.

I came across a young CEO, a high school junior and founder of TechnoAcademy, who admonishes young people: Leverage Your Youth. Use technology to start a business.

On going to the website, I saw that Technoacademy has a special program to bring the wonders of technology to senior citizens, with education programs offered free of charge to senior citizen centers, starting in the Atlanta area.

From there I came upon a TED talk, from 2011, by a young app maker, Thomas Suarez. At age 12 he had two published apps and a startup company.  Speaking for kids today, he said: "For soccer, you could go to a soccer team. For violin, you could get lessons for a violin." Parents have done those things, but what if you want to make an app? Parents haven’t made apps and he wanted kids to be able to make them.

So he created an app club at his school, put his apps at the Apple App Store, and offers his club as a resource for teachers who want to experiment with teaching high tech.

One app, Bustin Jieber, is a whac-a-mole game that replaces the mole with a photo of Justin Bieber’s head, for those who want to whack Justin Bieber.  I have no idea about that, but apparently middle school kids do.

Now age 15, he has a company, Carrot Corp, which says it creates apps for iOS, Android and Google Glass, and is also revolutionizing 3D printing with ORB.

The truth is, I’m not even sure exactly what an app is. I have one of those old school cell phones, where I  tape the numbers of important people on the back and buy my minutes for the year...$100 a year for 100 minutes.

 I now have 364 minutes. This tell you how far behind the curve I am.

So I am definitely a candidate for Technoacademy’s care package for seniors, or an app club once I figure out what sort of app I would like for my yet-to-be purchased smart phone.

But back to leverage. Yes, some seniors need to upgrade their technology skills. Like Robert DeNiro in the recent film, The Intern. He plays a 70-year-old widowed retiree, Ben, who has tried all the usual retiree pursuits...travel, golf, classes, watching the grandkids, tai-chi in the park, etc.

But he feels there’s a hole in his life. He lacks purpose. He learns of a start-up  which wants to expand diversity by offering internships to seniors...not high school or college seniors, but senior citizens.

So Ben applies and is selected. What Ben lacks in computer savvy, such as getting on Facebook, he makes up for in his business and life experience. With his old school approach of wearing a suit, dispensing down-to-earth wisdom to his co-workers and his boss, he becomes an indispensable part of the company. They love him.

I won’t go into detail about the film, but I wondered if any companies besides this fictional one were offering senior internships. I searched the Internet and the only significant thing that I found was the Encore Program in San Francisco, which, according to its website, has pioneered programs to tap the talent and experience of people past midlife as a human resource for solving our most vexing social problems.

The CEO, Marc Freedman, asks on the blog: What one policy should Washington pass to benefit older Americans in 2015?   A Legacy Corps -- to support and mobilize one million Americans in their 50s, 60s and 70s to dedicate a year of service to improving prospects for the next generation in such areas as early childhood education, literacy, and school to work transitions.

In other words, leverage the older generation to improve American society while seniors develop a sense of purpose.

This is an exciting time. Technology is creating opportunities for people of any age--from young people with fresh outlooks to senior citizens with their accumulated knowledge.

As Ernest Holmes says, Life lies open to us, full rich and abundant. We have only to open the portals of our soul and allow the infinite to flow to us, and through us and for us.

And so it is.

How OLD Are You?

I was looking through the Ernest Holmes book, Living the Science of Mind, when I came upon this essay: "How OLD Are You?"

Sometimes I feel pretty old. Tired, sluggish, a bit on the fat side. I look in the mirror and mumble, "What happened?"

Holmes asks: When does a person get too old to enjoy life? Could it be that even age is something that happens to our minds rather than our bodies?  And could a person be as young at eighty as he is eighteen?

I read a story recently about Ernestine Shepherd, an eighty year old body builder. She keeps herself vital, healthy, strong and youthful by being “determined, dedicated and disciplined to stay fit.”

 So her process starts in her mind. She made a decision to be a world class body builder and she follows that up with a disciplined action plan.

As Holmes says, life is always working miracles in our bodies. If injured “there is an Intelligence that immediately puts all parts of the chemistry of our body to work to replace it with a new cell, one that is whole, complete and perfect.” Thus wounds heal. And we definitely can sculpt our bodies, as Shepherd has demonstrated.

Let’s steer our minds toward the possible, the enthusiastic expectation of fresh beginnings with each new day, says Holmes, rather than allow ourselves to be stuck with old stereotypes about aging.

If we divide our lives into thirds, he adds, typically the first third involves growing up and getting ready to live in a larger way, while the second third may involve falling in love, building a family and a career. In both thirds we believe there is more to come.

Sometimes, with the last third, the kick may have gone out of life. Perhaps the element of wonder and surprise in simple everyday things fades. Perhaps, unlike Shepherd, we stop being active.

With the aging of the Baby Boomer generation has come an Age Wave with longer life span bonus years. Now the search for meaning and purpose intensifies. In the book Life Reimagined, authors Richard Leider and Alan Webber provide a roadmap for discovering new life possibilities.

What’s next? we might ask, as we navigate today’s landscape. Become an explorer, they say. of not only of the world but of ourselves. Experiment. Keep a possibilities journal. Try things out. See what works.

Their Life Reimagined guidance system includes six practices:

Reflect on each step along the way, understanding your choices from the inside out.  
Connect with trusted friends and guides for feedback rather than journey alone. 
Explore possibilities with curiosity and courage.  
Choose options on which to focus and dive deeper to find what’s right for you.  
Repack: What do you need for the new way ahead? What do you keep or let go of? 
Act. Without action, nothing happens.

As Holmes says, life is activity. When we stop being active we turn away from the newness of life. Also, having faith in a Power greater than we are and in the eternal life of our soul enhances a childlike appetite for “What next?” and for joy in the game of life.

He concludes: “You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

And so it is.

It's Never Too Late

Recently, I sat down at my computer thinking, I have to come up with three Creative Thoughts for upcoming Presider assignments.

What can I speak about? I felt empty. I was sad about the recent death of a friend in my age range, and about an acquaintance, also in my age range, moving away because of health challenges. And I’d been thinking: Am I in denial to stay here in my home, alone?  I have another birthday coming up; the sands of time are running and I'm getting older.

All sorts of catastrophic panoramas played out in my mind. What if?  I don’t even want to go there. But I’ve been feeling tired; my extra weight is weighing me down. I wonder about my health, my vitality, progress on my projects. Basically I've been down in in the dumps.

I guess the Universe heard me, and responded.

Before I even touched fingers to keyboard, the phone rang. My friend Elaine called to tell me of an inspirational story she’d seen on television...about an 80 year old body builder, Ernestine Shepherd. I could immediately see Ernestine on the computer, thanks to the Internet. Wow!

Here’s someone who ls a personal trainer, professional model, competitive bodybuilder and was declared the World’s Oldest Performing Female Body Builder by Guinness World Records in 2010 at age 75. Then she lost that title to another septuagenarian, Edith Connor, age 77, in 2012. So here are these two 80 year olds, pumping iron and who are, in the words of Ernestine, "determined, dedicated and disciplined to be fit."

Reportedly, when Ernestine prepares to compete in 5K and 10 K races and run marathons, she’s up at 4 am for a 10 mile run, runs 80 miles a week, and of course trains in the gym with weights several days a week.

What do these women eat, I wondered. One source says Ernestine eats 1700 calories a day, mostly from boiled egg whites, chicken, vegetables and liquid egg white drink. Edith Connor’s recommendation is don’t diet: see what foods increase body fats; set reasonable goals.

Edith didn’t enter her first body building competition until age 65...She has three sons, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Well, really!  After reading about these two ladies, I decided to throw on my clothes and go for a morning walk.   I’ve been going to the gym at least five  times a week lately, doing the elliptical and the bicycle, but it’s obviously not enough. I don’t see myself running 80 miles a week, but I need inspiration to up the ante, and this is giving it to me.

As it often happens with the Internet, one source leads to another, and I found myself looking at the work of Vic Johnson, writer and motivational speaker, and his book “It’s Never too Late and You’re Never Too Old.” He writes about 50 people over 50 who illustrate changing mindsets and cliche’s about age, as well as overcoming obstacles related to health, income, retirement and reinvention.  Age is not an excuse for inaction, giving up on dreams, or finding new successes in life, he says.

Johnson’s book profiles people who illustrate letting go of old notions, embracing the new, moving out of one’s way, ignoring past failures or lack of progress, experimenting and embracing new possibilities. Perhaps a skill we’ve been honing for years hasn’t blossomed, he writes. But by focusing more time and effort, we can create a breakthrough moment.

Yes, we might have to start slowly and set reasonable goals, but with persistence we CAN rejuvenate and reinvent ourselves. I like this quote from 19th century writer George Eliot: “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

Ernest Holmes would agree. As he says, life lies open to us, full, rich and abundant. So get out and manifest who you want to be.

And so it is.