In these changing times, with uncertainties in the job market, the stock market, and the climate, many people are focusing their fears on money, as if money were the source of their wellbeing. Totally understandable. We’ve been taught in many ways that our survival, much less our ability to have nice things and go nice places, is a function of how much money we receive and can spend.
On top of that it’s built into the culture that we live in to think that only if we’re working hard can have (do we deserve) the funds that allow us to live well. Otherwise we’ll suffer – and, worse, be dependent on others.
Well, there’s much more to our relationship with money than that. When I teach my “Money Workshop” I offer the following chart and explain the whats and whys and wherefores of each box. 

I won’t do that here, but you may find it useful to explore it and see where you are – and have been – and where the folks who advise you are, as well. I think you will hear what they have to say in a very different way when you understand the age/stage they’re operating from when they’re sharing their current wisdom.
And, if you’re on the journey from Middle Years to Elder, you may also find the following piece from Eric Butterworth’s Spiritual Economics useful:

• I am secure, for I know who I am: a richly endowed extension/expression of the Source of All that is.
• I am secure in all I do for I know my oneness with the divine process.’
• I am secure in all I have, for I know my treasure is in my mind, not in my things.
• I live my life from day to day as if the divine supportive substance were as exhaustless and dependable as the air I breathe, which it most certainly is.

Blessings of Peaceful Prosperity be upon us all! ​

​One of the folks in my circle let me know she was really deep in overwhelm… this was my response.  I share it in the hopes you may find something useful in it, too…
 
On the outside, it makes sense: you really have 2 kinds of jobs going, plus maintaining a marriage (which I believe ought to be recognized as a part-time job for the supportive spouse).
 
On the inside, though, is where the problem is. It sounds like you're trying to live your life using your personal energy, rather than the divine energy that is flowing through you. It sounds also as if you think you need to do big things to experience the divine energy. Both can lead to the kind of fatigue you describe.
 
To regain that sense of energy flowing, try this:

1. before you open your eyes every morning, feel gratitude for the bed and the home and the food in the pantry and anything else that comes to mind.
2. Take a long, slow, deep breath and feel the energy flowing into the body with the breath - then release it, imagining the energy moving in and through every cell as the air flows out.
3. Then stretch, feeling the muscles responding and taking in that energy. Every day. 

Doing the stretch every time you change tasks during the day would be good, too.  You're just reminding the body what you know in your mind - that you are constantly supplied and supported by the divine.
 
The next step is to start to reframe your thoughts. In 2 areas:

• Fatigue is often the result of things undone... we're keeping track of all that remains to be done. So,
  1. every time you accomplish something - however small - give yourself a pat on the back (virtual  :) 
  2. As you're getting ready for the night, congratulate yourself on each of the many things you actually did. Something like, "it's been a good day. I got the space by the door weeded, put 2 meals on the table, enjoyed them, and cleaned up after, a load of laundry is done, and my client today really could feel some changes, and we made good progress on that marketing idea."  Every day, every accomplishment.
  3. Then give thanks that it all happened and now you get the delight of a good rest.
• Feeling drained is often a sign that we're not doing what we thought was ours to do. Sometimes you feel you’re not where you expected to be doing what you expected to be doing, nor are you in a community that you expected your community to be. All of that can take the life out of you. But you made the choice. Part of you says "made your bed, lie in it" and part of you is going "but this isn't how I wanted to be living my life!" That battle is exhausting and can lead to all kinds of symptoms. What would happen if you started thinking, instead, that this is a strange but very helpful stage in your journey toward living the life you have dreamed? What if you could measure the ways in which what you're doing now is a big step toward being and doing the life that you feel called to? NOT a diversion that is in conflict, but a part of the process of getting there?

 I think you'll find very quickly that the energy is flowing rather than blocked, and you feel much better about your life!
 

  If we look across cultures, and across time in Christian culture, we can trace the stages of development that each soul must go through. From the new convert to the saint, from the isolated discoverer to the most beloved mystic, in the lives of such as Augustine, Francis, the Teresas, Tolstoy, and Emerson, we can see a consistent progression.
   One version of these steps is described below, from the point of view of the people experiencing them.
STAGE ONE. Awe.
There is a power greater than me and all of us together—a power over all our lives. ("if what controls the world is like me or the powerful people I know, it’s scary!")
STAGE TWO. Appeasement.
There are ways to behave that seem to keep that power working for us rather than against us. (“We must sacrifice to experience atonement.”)
STAGE THREE. Explanation, Imitation, & Ritual.
Some of our behaviors have different effects in different situations; the power that runs things seems to have many faces, each with its own story. (“If we live that story, maybe we can experience the benefits of that special power; saints emulate Jesus, Mary, the Buddha, Mohammed.”)
STAGE FOUR. Relationship.
When we stop to really look at our lives our perception of who we are and what the world is shifts; we let go of fear and control as we enter the Silence—there, the power that has run our world seems to speak to us and guide us on a new path. (the prophet Abraham hears the Lord; Neal Donald Walsh has conversations with God; Esther Hicks experiences Source Energy)
STAGE FIVE. New Choices.
As we surrender old ideas about external power to rely on the new awareness of an inner Guide, we choose based on new standards. (We live what the Egyptians called the “10 words,” and Christians and Jews call Moses’ “10 commandments:” Or, we accept the Buddha’s “8-fold path:”)
STAGE SIX. Well-being.
Living from the new choices and going inside for guidance, we discover that all-that-is, every being, is one interconnected whole; to experience any is to experience all: mercy, justice, humility, generosity, compassion, acceptance are second nature. All is well. (We let go of judgment.)
STAGE SEVEN. Unity.
I am One with all being. I am all—all is that which I am. Call me Being (Essence, I am), for all-that-is exists thru and as me; I Am. (We step off the staircase of progress into joyful beingness.)
STAGE EIGHT. Power.
One Power flows thru and as all that is, expressing as me here, now, and thru me into all other lives and situations. All are healed, whole, holy, now. (We no longer desire, for our soul's longings are always manifest)
STAGE NINE. Infinity.
I am outside of space and time, containing all space and all time, yet creating this moment: now and now and now, again. I choose freedom, knowing it is life/peace for all. (We transcend material experience.)          
​   Reading the lives of prophets, saints, and mystics, we can see that, while all these steps are experienced, this is not an orderly progression. In fact, most people get a glimpse of a stage several steps ahead of where their normal thought processes are operating, then have a series of experiences that move them beyond their current state in the direction of those glimpses.
   More, we can see that the great attraction that most Westerners feel toward Jesus the Christ is that he appears, based on our understanding of the literature, to be the only human being to actually have attained and sustained Stage Eight and visibly move on to Stage Nine—in fact, most Christians would say that Jesus could do so only because he was the one Son of God. Hindus, however, would disagree with this idea, saying that while Jesus had, in fact, accomplished all that, they can name at least a dozen other men and women who have also done so, using advanced spiritual practices. And Muslims would say that the blessed Prophet Mohammed had done all that and more, by the grace of God (the Arabic word is Allah), rather than by any effort on his part beyond obeying God.
   This is wonderful because, both logically and from the words of those who have glimpsed those final stages, we realize that, in fact, it’s not possible to experience them without the grace of that ultimate Power—a merging is occurring, and it takes more than one being to make such a thing happen. Further, as we contemplate (which, in itself, is part of the process, coming from a word that means “time with God”) this realization, we begin to feel and know that we, too, are being called into that state, too.

   Then the real journey begins...

A few days ago the LightPath Center in Bend, Oregon posted a presentation I did for them on how we can respond to what's going on today in a way that leads to thriving, not merely surviving...

On a Personal Note:
Well, the wheel of life has turned full circle and, after 3 months elsewhere, I was able to visit with people on the Oregon Coast this week. The immediate crisis that called me away is over and I am now living in a cottage on the Alsea River, between the coast and Corvallis.

Apart from the moving process, most of my time these last weeks has been focused on my spiritual work, through writing and various forms of being in the Silence. My time with others and with family has been very limited, so I was able to spend long hours going deep into the inner world. I was also able to complete a few writing/editing projects – for myself and for others. 
 
Looking at the World:
It’s a wild world out there right now, as the regime that has been slowly but steadily eroding the rights and privileges of US citizens and visitors for decades is being challenged at its very roots. Those of you who have attended my classes and workshops know that I see these times as a shift from one way of being in the world to another, and that my work has always been to help make the transition as easy as possible.
But we have not, as a population, chosen the smooth path. We have clung to the ways of fear and control and allowed others to define our lives for us. Now, after years of feeling less and less empowered and weeks of being closeted away, deprived of direct human contact, and – for too many – of our livelihood, the high level of energy that has always driven Americans has erupted. The people are saying “no more!” And the all-too-visible evidence of the bigotry and racism that has underlain all empire cultures for the past 6000 years is the spark that lit the fire.
​   ____________________________________________________________________________________

• All this is the reason that I pushed to get another book out, right NOW.
• It’s called Discovering A New Way and it’s about how humanity has lived before and alongside these empires that have been taking over the world for the past few millennia. It’s also about how Americans have chosen to live. And it offers a possible project that, by its very immensity, could begin to offer us a path out of the exploitative empire pattern and toward a new one.
• The book is at the printer now, and is available on Amazon, or, if you use the coupon on this link, you can get a signed copy and a discounted price.   CLICK HERE to get your signed copy.

 ____________________________________________________________________________________
At the same time that all these things are happening, however, a whole new level of understanding is truly emerging – and many of you are experiencing it.
On the internet and in the stores, I’m hearing people talking about life and what’s important in different ways. They’re awakening from the hypnotic trance that the media – and an impossible schedule – has kept them in all these years. They’re discovering and sharing different kinds of concerns and possibilities for their lives and the world… all of which, of course, I find very exciting!  I’m sure you’ve noticed it, too. And I’m sure we’ll all see much more as the next weeks and months unfold.

It will be a mixed bag, of course. People will make up stories to explain what they don’t understand and then operate as if those stories are the reality we’re all experiencing. We don’t have to buy into the stories, however, and we don’t have to judge the people who invent them. We simply need to apply our principles, recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of each being we encounter and accepting them as they are, recognizing they’re on their own spiritual and emotional journey. We may be able to assist, if asked, but otherwise we just surround them with the light of love and go our own way.

The next few years may be pretty rocky for a lot of folks, but they don’t have to be. If we live simply and work together in our communities, taking care of ourselves and each other; if we focus our thoughts on how humanity is in an evolutionary process and what it will look like on the other side; if we fill our days with awareness of the many blessings we constantly receive; these ways of being will make the transition much smoother for us and for all those we care for.

I look forward to the opportunities ahead of us, to the ways we will be creating the kind of world our great-grandchildren (or great-grandnieces and nephews) will be raising their children and grandchildren in. Every time we choose our principles over fear, our appreciation for what we’re experiencing over doubt about what people tell us, our inner awareness over what “they” say, and use our talents and gifts in creating our lives – then we are building the best world for them that we can.
Blessings on the journey….
   R

As I turned on my laptop this morning, the screen came up with a big blue box telling me all the things I could learn about Windows (as if I hadn’t been using Windows for a couple decades, now, and Windows 10 since the week it came out – sigh!). My first reaction was “really?” My next was to scan the screen to find a way to shut it down.

I did. I clicked on “skip for now” (oh dear, will have to deal with it again some day) and the big blue box went away to reveal my own beloved desktop wallpaper. Yay!
Then my eyes took in the words I’ve pasted onto that wallpaper: “I am living in a universe designed to heal the apparent separation…”  It’s from the Course In Miracles, which I’ve been slowly but steadily “translating” into modern, easy-to-read-and-understand, American usage.

It woke me up – here Windows was offering me all kinds of ways to be interconnected – with my phone and other devices, with other computers, with the broad base of servers that make up “the Cloud” – and my first and only reaction was to shut it down… I wanted to remain separate!

And I thought about all the people, right now, fighting and protesting and in despair because of the deep separation among us called racism.
At that point, the insight came:
 
Humanity is committed to feeling separated, even though, every day, in every area of life, we’re being offered opportunities to overcome that illusion and feel the interconnectedness, the oneness.
 
For years I’ve been studying and teaching how this universe is one interconnected whole, of which we are all part. Its laws and processes are designed to help us experience – and benefit from – our interconnectedness. This earth is a special place where we get to bring into form what we imagine. Humanity’s fundamental longing is to overcome the sense of feeling separate from our Source, our Supply, and each other.

So the folks at Microsoft, seeking to heal the sense of separation and being focused on computers, imagine the healing as a complex interconnection of computers and other devices in one whole “Cloud” of easily accessed and utilized data bits.

Others, equally driven to undo this sense of separation, think that can only happen when we are all the SAME. Uniforms, fashions, skin color, school curricula – these are all expressions of that misguided understanding.

And yet, clearly, I, who have taught these principles for decades, now, still choose to live alone (and not put my data on the Cloud), demonstrating a need to maintain a sense of separation.

But “I live in a universe designed to heal the apparent separation.” Every moment is an opportunity to overcome this fundamental error in our thinking. We are not separate!

Every time the world erupts in racial violence – or any other sort. Every time we recognize ourselves judging another. Every time we realize that we have chosen away from resting in our oneness with the higher power, we are being moved one more step closer to experiencing the only Reality: our Oneness.

And that Reality is not homogeneous!  That’s what we need to understand to overcome our fear. We get to be our individual selves – indeed we must be! – for the Oneness to function as a whole. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, our uniqueness is essential for the whole picture to be formed.
​
I doubt that I will soon take Windows up on their offer to integrate all the devices I use into one, complete, interactive network. But, today, I saw the “good” in what appears to be an awful mess “out there.” And that is...
   We are all feeling drawn into the Oneness of our common humanity, the Oneness of our common home on this planet Earth, the Oneness that is our nature and our destiny.
 
Today, I accepted at a new level the Truth of our being. All that I see “out there” is showing me what’s going on “in here.” My own beliefs, choices, and actions, are constantly being reflected back to me – not to punish me or “teach” me a lesson, but so I can simply observe them and make a different choice.

Today, I choose to reach out, from my heart, and embrace all of “them”. All those “others” who do and say things I can’t imagine anyone doing or saying… (ah, but I must be able to! Because they are, and they reflect what’s inside me! Sigh!)… so here, now, once again I choose. I embrace them, and, in doing so, I feel the dissolving, the eradication of the possibility – in me, or in them – of such violent things being done or said. We are one – many facets of the same diamond, many pieces of the same puzzle, many colors of the same rainbow. We are one – in our humanity and in our divinity. And we are free – free to choose our individual ways of being and doing and relating in Love and Joy and Peace.
 
And so it is. And, realizing that this has become a prayer, I say AMEN.
 

​One more note about this virus…
 
In the science of mental healing practiced within the New Thought tradition it’s been found that every physical condition is reflective of, and a useful pointer to, a psycho-emotional condition. Looking at the SARScorona-2 virus from this perspective provides some possibly useful insights:

1. Virus infections in general tend to indicate issues around boundaries, letting another’s will override our own –
   • This virus in particular attaches to cells on boundaries that protect tissue.
   • In today’s world most people spend most of their time in work situations where they feel they must set aside their own intentions and preferences in favor of the manager’s or owner’s.
2. Respiratory illnesses in general, have to do with expression of ideas, opinions and emotions – the more difficult it is to breathe the more likely the issue is suppression of unexpressed thoughts and feelings –
   • This virus is most likely to affect the respiratory system
   • In today’s world, even though there are many ways to communicate, the expectation, both at work and in social situations, is that only certain kinds of things may be said or talked about
3. Illnesses associated with the heart generally have to do with ongoing fear – particularly of loss
   • The people most likely to deal with intense symptoms with this virus are those dealing with heart issues
   • In today’s world, the role of most media has become to point out all the reasons to be afraid, to the point where strangers are to be avoided and what was normal for people growing up even one generation ago seems irresponsibly reckless to most parents today.

Being aware of these correlations helps us understand why this particular experience is so widespread at this point in the history of our culture – which is, today, worldwide.

Continuing to explore the ideas in my last post, I had the realization that when the Unity of Spirit is thought of as the 3 aspects of the trinity, which are usually illustrated as 3 overlapping circles, there are actually 7 segments...

Recognizing that a 2-dimensional image doesn't even begin to portray the reality, it nonetheless begins to provide a framework for the experience and teachings of spiritually adept beings over the millennia - and hopefully gives us a way to make sense of the many terms and concepts that are floating around in different religions.
[NOTE: This and any other image on my site may be downloaded by right-clicking and copying. If you share it with others, please let them know where it came from. Thanks!]

Thoughts on Good Friday during the Corona Virus shutdown...
​
There is only one beingness, showing up in its own nature in, through, and as all that is, everywhere. That beingness, is-ness, essence, extends itself infinitely in all directions and as it does so, aspects of its fundamental nature cause some of what is being extended to be attracted to each other. In our universe Fermions (named after Enrico Fermi, the first person to split an atom) are the aspect of the one that tend to extend outward, and Bosons (named after Chandra Bose, the person who, along with Albert Einstein, discovered that some compounds cannot by taken apart) the aspects that tend to coalesce.
Complexity
As the fundamental beingness continues to extend, the tendency to coalesce shows up as nodes within it, and as they attract more Bosons and increase their patterns of attraction and extension in complexity, they reinforce the experience and expression of the nature of the beingness.
So, for example, the elements of our universe exhibit more and more tendency to extend themselves as they are more and more complex. Hydrogen, the simplest, is constantly attracting and coalescing with other atoms to maintain itself. The more complex elements, uranium and “heavy metals,” constantly radiate aspects of themselves outward. The galaxies, stars, and planets made up of these elements can be seen to extend these qualities still further
The compound chemicals these elements form in the galactic clouds and planets exhibit the same pattern. Simple sugars bind together; complex proteins constantly form and reform, working with other proteins to make still more complex molecules.
The simple life forms, like protozoa and bacteria, consume to form colonies and grow until they can consume no more and it’s impossible to get to the resources needed to maintain the cells within the colony. The fundamental beingness of all-that-is attracts and coalesces within them, but the pattern of interaction between coalescing and extension is too simple to do more. It’s more complex in multi-celled life forms, which are typically more mobile, and the shift from reproducing oneself to merging with another to reproduce makes the pattern even more complex.
Which then leads to the ever-increasing complexity observed in the evolution of life forms.  As each minute set of interactions occurs, attracting and extending at the molecular and cellular levels, layer upon layer of complexity can be seen to develop. The human brain, with its ganglionic bundle, on which is built a reptilian base, then a mammalian function, then a primate’s capacity to choose, and finally the integrative function connecting all of them with and in mutual support with one another, is a prime example of this process.
And with each layer of complexity comes an increased activity of the fundamental beingness, an increased capacity to choose to function in the same way.
Infinite Creation
So the question becomes: what is the functioning of the fundamental beingness, besides to extend itself and coalesce aspects of its extension? At the simplest level it is to continue to extend and coalesce in increasingly complex patterns. However, there is the fact of self-maintenance to consider. The beingness must maintain itself to continue to extend itself, which means there is a primal urge to benefit all aspects of being, to maintain the well-being of all within the whole.
So we are part of a creative process of extension and attraction, constantly working for the benefit of all the parts within the whole – all of which are continually creating through the same extension and attraction.
And since the whole process is extending out infinitely, it must therefore include infinite possibilities of nodes and structures. And each choice point, each time something coalesces or not, leads to another set of possibilities – and other universes.
In our universe, these possibilities have occurred within the framework of Fermions, Bosons, the elements they form, and the chemical compounds they form, leading to the various forms of life that have evolved over the millennia.
In other universes, though, this fundamental beingness may not be extending as the matter and energy that we see here. Fermions and Bosons may have their parallel in other forms besides matter and energy, so beingness may be extending as aspects of information, or patterns of connectivity, without the material base we’re used to. Or it may be extending as something we can’t even imagine.
A Second Universe
In fact, there are some universes that certain people have explored mentally where the tendency to extend and the tendency to attract seem to be exhibited as more like thought forms than the matter-energy forms of our universe. And across traditions and generations, around the world, thousands of people have described a realm in which people like us exist but without material form. Some call it the Astral plane; others say the “underworld” or the “overworld,” “dreamtime,” or simply another dimension of existence.  

It's been  a month since the US began to experience this new phenomenon and apply the WHO guidelines regarding the new strain of corona virus. I continue to look at the process from 4 overlapping perspectives: an environmental scientist, a futurist, a Unitarian-Universalist minister, and a New Thought metaphysician. 
The following talk, taped on Mar 20 for the Mar 22 Sunday service in Florence, offers some of my thinking on the subject (the talk begins 14 minutes into the service):