Tag: joy

A Farewell Celebration of JOY

Big Sky Retreat 2024

The Big Sky Retreat – Aug 31 to Sept 4, 2024

I wrote the prose below to Honor this amazing accomplishment of having achieved the record number of years of an ongoing metaphysical retreat! I had the privilege of being with it from its beginnings. For me – it was my spiritual anchor – reminding me of my personal freedom to discover my own authenticity and encourage all to do the same.

“A Journey to Love” was our Theme.

It is Remembrance that is the key,
Angels go before us to prepare the way.
That we open to our destiny.
The Power of Love to see.
It’s the quest to sing our song,
That we all belong.
We are born into forgetting,
And believe life is about getting,
When Life is about Being
That we are here to shed our Light.
And open to inner sight,
There are no others – just all.
Seeking Remembrance of the “Call”
It’s a journey to Love that we may rise.
And come to realize.
That sacred quest we all share,
That we all matter and are here to care,
That as Mother Nature proclaims – Be!
Sing your song that all may be free!
Remembering – That journey to Love is our Destiny.

Our keynote speakers – Dr. James Mellon – our Music Artistry by Robin Hackett, workshops by Angel Howard and Paul Hasselbeck, power talks by Rev. Liz Luoma, Rev. Jen Dickey and Rev. Dr. Liza Marques were all WOWS!

There were 25 new attendees, 50 returnees – all know it was our last retreat and all arriving in such JOY to celebrate our history – the moment – and honoring 48 years of touching lives was a phenomenal achievement.

Rev. Dr. James Mellon made a wonderful observance that tough our theme “A Journey to Love,” he put forth to consider it “A Journey as Love.” This retreat has been an ongoing journey of 48 years to ever deepening love, because its origin was rooted as LOVE to begin with.

May we all be mindful, more than ever, we are here to evolve and build bridges, not walls that we learn from one another for the salvation of all humanity. Check out the pictures on the Big Sky Retreat Facebook page.

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Our Belief in Duality is What Blocks Us from the Realization of Oneness and the Joy that Comes from that Realization.

Bird Flying in Sunset Sky

Wisdom quotes from great teachers, ancient and current:

  • “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.” Maya Angelou –
  • “Our sorrows and wounds are only healed when we touch them with compassion.” Buddha
  • The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” – Carl Jung
  • “We can make ourselves miserable or we can make ourselves strong. The amount of effort is the same.” – Pema Chodron
  • “The belief in duality has made us sick – and the understanding of Unity/Oneness will heal.” Ernest Holmes

We are all One in this journey together. Wholeness envelopes us – but only we can bring it into our hearts and soul as the Truth of our Being.

Thanks to a dear friend whose husband dealt with a therapy process that got to the root of the intense pain and anger he had buried; she recommended a therapeutic process called EMDR.

EMDR’s goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. There are such therapists here in Helena.

As I have entered this therapy personally, I cherish that one of the great insights is that deeper healing is not about our age – it’s simply our willingness to step out of the self-inflicted pain that no longer needs to reside within us. This transcends all the fearful thoughts I may create.

I share 3 Keys to Advancing on Wholeness and the amazing Joy that unfolds.

  1. Integrating the light and dark as integral to our Being and wellness.
  2. I can’t expand without going deeper. My growth and expansion are to stretch to new awareness.
  3. Acceptance of events we cannot change, but how we can see them in a new light.

    “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – AA

    And I am adding: “The openness to see things in new light.”

    “Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.” – Rumi

“Radical Forgiveness is much more than the mere letting go of the past. It is the key to creating the life that we want, and the world that we want. It is the key to our own happiness and the key to world peace. It is no longer an option. It is our destiny.”
– Colin Tipping – Founder of the Institute for Radical Forgiveness

The soul work I do on me impacts generations past – present and future. Nothing brings me greater Joy than that realization.

I close this blog with a reference to a beautiful song by Daniel Nahmod. For me it’s the realization that to genuinely Mind Your Own Becoming is first realizing what you must Unbecome.

Unbecoming – Daniel Nahmod

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Go Deeper – Do the Inner Work to Behold Joy!

underwater ocean grotto

I have maintained the inner child – where Joy resides and know that I also created a wounded child that took on the intensity of my sense of identity and value.

I took on the guilt of a struggle with my own sexual identity and feeling literally “a despicable abhorrent specimen of humanity.” That condemnation was rooted in shame that never belonged to me and was rooted in the world consciousness and fundamentalist religion. That shame led me into incredibly dark places that I have shared in my previous writings.

In my early twenties I stepped out of traditional church completely because it never made sense to me that I would enter a place of worship and come out feeling worse than I entered because of what I heard.

I had studied Eastern teachings, the works of the great Mystics, and the writings of Edgar Cayce.

When I came upon the teachings of Science of Mind, by Ernest Holmes, I knew I found a place of reason and my spiritual home.

There is a song we are each are here to experience as a soul that defines our own sacred and unique being. That song can be as simple and pure as loving what you do and valuing the gifts and talents within you. When you are expressing the authenticity of your soul – Joy is very much present.

See my blog on Baby Thing – a starling who had a song to sing!

I made the decision at 26 to study for the ministry. I knew this was a soul calling, however, I was entering for all the wrong reasons. I felt that perhaps if I did enough good for others somehow, I could make up for the self-loathing and condemnation I held inside myself.

I have recently opened to go deeper into my healing journey. Healing is ongoing and it is about vulnerability and willingness to see things with new perspective. With all the deep work I have done through decades of reminding others to accept and find enduring beauty and regard within themselves, it’s only been in my recent commitment for personal professional counsel and specifically EMDR therapy that my deepest healing and insight has taken hold.

We have come far from the psychological counsel available 60+ years ago. There are greater insights that have taken place and profound healing modalities to which we can open.

I will be sharing the healing revelations that are coming through as I process them more fully. It’s so wonder-full to realize I am honoring my own self-healing more than ever. That is what Mind Your Own Becoming is all about! Honor that you are worth investing in that deeper awareness that can bring a feeling of Joy and purpose richer than you have ever known!

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Non-Duality – The Path to JOY

Non-Duality - The Path to Joy

Our Mind Your Own Becoming theme for August is: “Rekindling Joy.”

I offer my thoughts from my soul journey with JOY in this hour of my life.

Keep it Simple: It’s Remembrance – “Going back to the realization, however, we define Creation – everything that has come into being is through that One Source. I call it Originating Cause. Thomas Troward, the great metaphysician coming into the 20th Century, defined the essence of that Originating Cause as: Life, Love, Light, Power, Peace, Beauty, and Joy.

What keeps us bound to the illusion and ultimate delusion of duality is the belief in “others,” and that I am a separate entity from everyone and everything else. When I return to the Source all — it’s only One!

This life journey certainly contains the experience of the opposites to those 7 elements. However, the root of all our Being is the quest to remember – we are here for ultimate JOY – not despair. I share the stirring words of Kahlil Gibran on his prose of Joy and Sorrow – from The Prophet.

I am saying farewell to the Big Sky Retreat that has been an integral part of my life and my spiritual soul anchor for 48 years. There is deep grief in releasing the love, laughter, tears, and remembrance of countless “Transcendent Moments” – see my blogs on Transcendental Love.

The reality of what I carry forward is Love and JOY, I share this segment on Peace by Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science and prolific author. Breathe it in. Yes – as humankind we live in a world of duality and multi-beliefs that keep us apart. Yet – when I step back – breathe in – and “Be Still” I create the space for remembrance of Oneness, and I am at Peace. May we all practice Oneness – and find our inner Peace that is the doorway to JOY?

PEACE

At the center of my being is Peace –
the Peace that is felt in the coolness of early evening after all have turned from their labor
and the first star shines in the soft light of the sky.

There is a freshness, a vitality, a power underlying this, Peace.
It broods over the earth quietly, tenderly, as a mother
watches over her sleeping child.

In this Peace that holds me so gently I feel strength and protection from fear and anxiety. It is the Peace of God, and within it I feel the Love of a Holy Presence.

As I become more conscious of this Love, all fear slips away as mist fades in the morning sunshine. I am one with deep abiding Peace.

I know that all is well.
I permit this Peace to flow through my entire being,
through my mind and heart until every problem is released.
The way is made clear before me.
It is filled with joy and harmony.

I AM Life
I AM Love,
I AM Light,
I AM Power,
I AM Peace,
I AM Beauty,
I AM Joy*
I AM vitality and strength and all good. 

 Written by Dr. Ernest Holmes in 1950

*Note added all 7 elements of Spirit from Thomas Troward’s
“The Creative Process in The Individual”

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

The Seeds of Transcendent Love

pexels-william-fortunato

There is nothing more precious than the birth of a child. That original innocence is sacred to behold. No one is “born into sin.” We are here for good purpose for the blessing of all humanity through how we have lived together. The seeds of Transcendent Love are within every new birth.

Heaven and Hell

The word heaven is from the Greek word – Ouranos – and references expansion. It references looking to the sky. Open minds enable us to see things from a higher view – “look to the sky.”

One of the root words of Hell – “Helan” – refers to covering up – and being unable to see light or Truth. We’ve done an impressive job of hell on earth with our beliefs in separation through race, cultures, governments, and religions that keep us apart and warring. What a revelation if we did realize we are all One from the same star stuff. How might that expand our views? We can come to treasure diversity as Mother Nature reveals to us the wonder of it.

We have seen evidence of heaven on earth through what we can achieve as we honor the inherent gifts of art, writing, creativity, and the multi-talents that dwell within us. The Mystics have shared what we can achieve in realizing compassion, love, and regard for one another.

Humanity (to this point) has loved to segregate, disenfranchise, label, and condemn those who aren’t “normal” as to how various views of how God created us to be. I don’t believe God created me to be “normal.”

A Personal Reflection of God

My belief of God: The originating Principle of Life. The galaxies evidence that it contains energy; intelligence, is life producing and ongoing creativity. It is also clear that our thoughts have power. They are a part of that creative impulse. The energy around thoughts of love and hate are tangible and impact all life. We do create heaven or hell on earth and understanding that Truth we can realize – only all of us together can see a new expanding vision of our world where we do treasure every sacred newborn for good purpose and planting seeds for Transcendent Love for all of us.

I choose to keep expanding my vision of the wonder of life and the potential within all to awaken to the joy of their own being. What a world we can create for future generations to awaken to. The only thing love is meant to be about is compassion, enlightenment, and transformation as we are all free to explore our uniqueness and the gift, we are here to bring to one another. The seeds of Transcendent Love exist in every new birth – and how we nurture that new being is a sacred charge as parents and as a society.

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.