Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

We live in an ever changing world , Just as seasons change, so do we, Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see” 
A search activated in me for positive change, Which lead me to my personal branding on  “Developing happiness habits” 
As a licensed facilitator & coach of  “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, Material I attribute to being my passageway to finding and embracing the Science of Mind teaching by Ernest Holmes Life confirms habits can be hard to break, Or difficult to maintain,Our journey is a forever unfolding , Validating a strong foundation is key to demonstrating life in a greater way 
For our habits make us,As my journey continue to unfold through affirmations and unforeseen discoveries and awakenings
Today, I’m challenged to incorporate yet another new habit, “Be magnanimous!”, Which I regard as my first “original” happiness habit It may take less effort to harbor resentment, To dismiss rather than welcome change, Or even be angry and upset by harmful acts, intentional or unintentional heaped upon us “Pain is meant to be felt” but not a place to dwell,Life is not without challenges, If peaceful living is preferred, Have courage, Forgive and Be magnanimous 
And it so it will be, Up to the challenge?

“If you think about it, when it comes to holidays (or “holy-days”), we shouldn’t be celebrating some historical event where God expressed a preference for one group of people, or one religion, over another. What these holidays should be a celebration of, is whatever universal spiritual idea these stories represent. If we can look at them in that way, then we can all share each other’s celebrations, and share in our cultural diversity, and maybe even share all the different rituals, like a Jewish Seder, or an Easter sunrise service, or a Muslim call to prayer. And we can do this, peacefully and openly and tolerantly, while realizing that we’re ALL celebrating our shared divinity AND our shared humanity, in our own unique way.”

As we go into this “Passion Week”, I want to draw the comparisons to the week 1,983 years ago, and the one we will celebrate this week. Come hear the metaphysical interpretation of what it means to come ‘down into the city’.

Nature, just like all of life, moves in cycles. Just like storms and the seasons are logical outcomes of natural laws, all of the challenges and the changes WE face in life are logical outcomes of the way we use the Law of Mind. And the best way, the most intelligent way, to get through our challenges successfully is by making conscious, deliberate use of the same Law to create something better. In other words, even though we may or may not understand exactly how we got ourselves into the mess we're in, we are always capable of using the Divine wisdom that's working THROUGH us and AS us to get our life back in balance.

“Fore!”, is the exclamation golfers use when setting up tee. It comes from an old Australian war term when the soldiers would exclaim “Beware Before!” when artillery was going to be launched. So it is on the four year anniversary that we exclaim “Fore!”.  As Emerson said, “Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet”, so it is with us as we release the greater thoughts we Know about Life and ourselves.

"Too many people allow themselves to be defined by their past. Or even worse, they allow themselves to be defined by how others see their past. Dr. Raymond Charles Barker once said, 'Yesterday ended last night.' He was entirely correct. But another way of saying the same thing is, the present always has the power to overcome the past. What we call 'our history' only exists in our memory, and in the memory of others. But not all those memories are identical. In fact, some of them are mutually exclusive. That's why we need to focus on where we are now, and put our best and most spiritual energy into where we are going from here."

“We have this strange idea that true love and friendship are supposed to make us happy; they’re supposed to make life easier. But that isn’t necessarily true. They aren’t supposed to make us happy, they’re supposed to help us GROW. BOTH of us! When we are in a really good relationship, we usually DO feel happier, and life frequently DOES get much easier, but that’s a by-product. It isn’t the most important thing in a healthy relationship.”

It was Hafiz who asked if we can kiss for an hour…..It will be David to explain who is the kisser and who is the kissee! Oh, to kiss for an hour!

 It was Raymond Charles Barker that said, “An expanded experience is ALWAYS preceded by an expanded consciousness.” So after hearing the Basic Series by Paul Gonyea the first four weeks of the year, come hear the practical application of the teaching so that you truly live the expanded experience in 2016.

We forget that this thing we call Life isn’t a finished product being handed to us; it’s raw material. It’s a work in progress. It’s a lump of clay, a block of marble, a blank canvas. We are sculptors and artists who have been given an infinite variety of shapes and colors and textures to choose from, and given all the tools we need to fashion our own life into something either beautiful and unique — or something rather average and boring.

That means as artists creating our own life, we should learn to ask ourselves, on a regular basis, honestly, quietly and without self-judgment, WHAT IS IT that I want to create?