InSpiritry

When we take the time to count our blessings, we have so much to be grateful for. Every day is worth celebrating! 

If today was your new holiday, what would you be celebrating?

When We Celebrate Our Lives, We Can Be a Blessing!

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Spring!

It’s Easter weekend, the time when Christian congregations around the world commemorate Christ’s resurrection, the remembrance of the empty tomb where passionate women friends of Jesus discovered the fulfilment of prophecy. For modern Christians, Easter is the celebration of spiritual renewal and the hope of eternal life for those who believe.

For other Americans, it is a happy weekend of family gatherings,  Sunday lunches, children in brightly colored outfits and Easter egg hunts.

It’s also spring, the time when Nature’s message of renewal is just as passionate as Easter itself. Here in East Texas, green has miraculously returned to bare branches and sleeping sod. Flowers of every hue shout their songs of celebration and new life. Animals large and small seem reinvigorated for this season of procreation and birth.

While our human lives are often more driven by work deadlines, school assignments and family responsilibities, we would do well to affirm our natural selves this time of year, to find ways to use this month to experience resurrection, both spiritually and personally–embracing the idea of a new lease on life, a chance to start again, fresh beginnings, bright hope.

Think about your own life this Easter:

• With the long, cold months of winter over, what darkness do you need to leave behind?
• As the world blossoms with color, how can you experience celebration and creativity with those you love?
• While birds build nests and mother animals give birth, what can you do to insure our childrens’ future?
• As caterpillars are being transformed into butterflies, what relationships of yours need to be renewed?
• Now that plants and trees are growing again, what part of your life needs new attention and growth or even change?

Let’s celebrate Easter with all the joy it represents. Let’s welcome Spring and experience a time for renewal. Let’s use our lives for more than self-absorbed day-to-day living. Let’s be Passionate about the Future, working together towards the Greater Good!

 When We Experience Renewal,

We Can Be a Blessing!

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or Contact Anne.

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I do solemnly swear

that I will faithfully execute the office

of President of the United States of America…

It happened! It really happened! Barak Obama has been sworn in as the first African American President of the United States!

The moment we have long awaited finally arrived today at noon, and what a moment it was! After a beautiful Washington DC dawn welcomed thousands of flag-waving Americans gathered on the mall and while cheering parade watchers waited with their faces full of smiles and tears, it happened. As we all watched, a young man’s leadership moved us into a new era– not only beyond racial divisions, but also beyond global aggression, beyond financial thievery, beyond partisan politics and beyond business as usual. As Barak Obama took the oath of office, promising to uphold this country, we also took an oath to bravely follow him into our future.

Like the orator he is, he spoke words we have needed to hear. As a word lover and progressive, I delighted in the power of his speech. But, even with all he said, it was not his words, but our words that struck me most. (more…)

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future…a fervent wish…that every path may lead to peace.”      ~ Agnes M. Pahro

With each day’s dose of dismal economic realities, allegations of corruption and the usual policial controversies, America is having a hard and harder time feeling the Christmas spirit. Even with Barak Obama’s promise of Hope, the American mood seems to be more like Hopelessness. It is not just a national sensibility; we are seeing it at a personal level:

Someone on our Christmas card list has lost their job.

Someone in our neighborhood is about to lose their home or already has.

Someone in line with us at the drug store has lost their retirement savings.

Or maybe all this is happening to us!  (more…)

 The God that we serve is so big

that we don’t have to be limited

by the world that we now see.

This quote by Mariama White-Hammond was part of a recent post  on the always  insightful and encouraging blog,  God’s Politics.

Ms. White-Hammond is the inspiring young executive director of Project Hip-Hop (Highways Into the Past—History, Organizing and Power), a youth-led, secular, nonprofit organization that provides a space where predominantly young people of color from traditionally low-income communities in Boston can develop and exercise their individual and collective leadership. The blog entry is excerpted from an interview with her that appears in this month’s issue of Sojourner magazine in a feature about young Christians who are making a difference in the world.

This particular quote came in answer to the question, What would you like to tell other Christians? While I think it is a great statement of faith, for me it is more than a Christian guidepost. (more…)

Today, January 21, 2008, is Martin Luther King Day, the only American national holiday to commenorate an African American. As you celebrate it, consider the idea that this could be the day you have been waiting for — the day you decide take up Dr. King’s challenge to follow your heart and make a difference in the world.  Indeed, today is the day: (more…)

Don’t ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive, and do that…

because what the world needs

is people who have come alive!               

Howard Thurman (1900-1981)

Howard Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian and educator, who after meeting Mahatma Gandhi became passionate about the ideas he heard from the great spiritual leader. Back in America, he went on to work for civil rights and to write about non-violence in words that informed Martin Luther King’s thinking and inspired other civil rights leaders of the mid-century.

As we make our resolutions for the New Year, plan our futures and even consider the politics of American presidential race, Thurman’s suggestion about doing what makes “you come alive” may be just what we need to hear! Many of us lead lives that, while addressing the needs of the world, can feel…well, uninspired. How can we change that in 2008? (more…)

Today is Unity Church’s 14th annual World Day of Prayer. As individuals and as a global family, it is a chance for us to celebrate all that is good in our lives, to commit to peace and to embrace the transforming power of our collective prayers. Around the world, festivities are planned and prayers are being lifted.

Whatever you have planned for today, I hope you will set aside a few minutes during the day for spiritual conversation. (more…)

A recent visit from my son, who is particularly insightful about human interactions, reminds me of the power of really listening–something families are often too busy or too bossy to do well. I have long known that family life, as well as spiritual living, calls us to seek to understand others. This past week, my son reminded me that we cannot do that if we are consumed by talking, studying, working, thinking, writing, playing, TV watching or even serving others.

The ability to suspend our personal agenda and offer our attention to someone else is, in fact, in itself a great personal act of service. When we really listen, when we offer our attention, we affirm the importance of the other person and their experiences and values. In that way, the unselfish act of listening is a first step towards of acknowledging the importance of the Greater Good. By listening, we admit, “It’s not just about me!” (more…)

There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jelaluddin Balkhi (Rumi)

The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Imagine yourself so filled with gratitude and joy that you feel compelled to kneel–to kneel!–and kiss the very ground on which you stand, to thank God/Nature/Life for the pleasure and priviledge of living! Now imagine a hundred ways to express that joy!

(more…)