May/June 2008 Newsletter
In This Issue
Rev. Frank Arnold - Freedom
Rev.
Sue Borg - Giving Big
Mother's Day Story
Feeding the Homeless
Freedom
By Rev. Frank Arnold
Last week a friend and I were talking about
freedom. She said something that really started me thinking. She said,
“We live in a free country and have the freedom of religion, speech, the
freedom to move when and where we want to, etc. But we do not understand
it and most of the time we don’t allow it when we are engaged in
conversations with others.”
My mind went right to - we need to defend…. And then I stopped it right
there. She’s right about us not having the tolerance for anything that
is not of our own opinion. I don’t know about you, but my sayings and
doings are often a direct result of what goes on around me, and then
everything becomes a reaction. Anyway for the past two weeks I have been
making a new habit of not reacting to, or having an opinion about the
things that are going on around me. As The Course teaches, do not judge
anything! That’s hard I’m finding out. When talking about religion,
politics and freedom, your opinion better coincide with my opinion, or I
will react and try to change your freedom of opinion. Ooops!
I have discovered the more effort I put into this new habit, the easier
it gets. Along with 20 years of working with A Course In Miracles, I
have been watching The New Earth series on the internet with Oprah and
Eckhart Tolle. Wow what a great opportunity we have to learn about the
ego and how truly insidious it is. Eckhart talks about life and death
and what it means. My head stone will read - Born 1944 – Died 20--. The
dash in between is my life, then I will move on to the next adventure.
I think a great part of this adventure is understanding freedom because
it is truly the purpose of life – to become free of the dictates of ego
and allow the spirit of God to shine through you. It is consciousness
(God) experiencing life through you. There is a great difference between
ego and spirit as we all know. When you are “in” spirit, you recognize
the peace of God that passes understanding and realize there is nothing
you need or require for happiness because it just shines through you. In
this state of consciousness, life’s purpose (happiness) shows up. You
can tell all this is happening because you will act and say and do
things that create an experience of joy for you and for others. Your
life will be at peace 24/7 because there is no need to react to
anything. Eckhart tells a story about a ring engraved with “this too
shall pass,” and that phrase has helped me to give up my reaction to
others’ opinions.
As I’ve said before, the only thing we need do is be in gratitude for
everything just the way it is. If there are things you need, you don’t
have to manifest them or create anything, you need only say “Thank you
God for all that is.” As Tolle says, there is only the now moment so
only in this moment do I have the opportunity to let the Love of God
shine through me and out into the world. If I’m worried about what I
don’t have or even about what I do have, that Love gets stuck until I
open to the truth of what I am.
Freedom is realized whenever I am grateful for the moment as it is.
Freedom happens whenever I don’t react to my environment. Freedom, just
like love is an inside job. It has very little to do with the world of
stuff and doing. Please know how blessed you are.
by Rev. Sue Borg
Printed in The Week Magazine April 11, 2008 Issue
Why do the Brangelinas, Bill Gateses, and Bonos of the world appear to
be so happy? It’s not simply that they have a lot of money - it’s
because they’re giving so much of it away, says a new study, Researchers
at the University of British Columbia have proved that spending cash on
others is far more satisfying than spending it selfishly. When a group
of students was given money and directed to give it away, they reported
feeling happier than when they’d kept the cash. The researchers found
the same pattern when they surveyed more than 600 U.S. citizens.
Self-reported happiness rates correlated with the amount of money people
had given away, not the amount they had earned or spent on themselves.
The date “confirmed our hypothesis more strongly than we dared to
dream,” social psychologies Elizabeth Dunn tells Science. She emphasized
that habitual charity is much better than a one-time donation, for both
the giver and the receiver. “If giving becomes a way of living,” she
says, “then it can make a lasting difference.”
This is not a new idea. Here’s a list I found on the internet of People
who are
giving to others and being kind. Just a short list I found in just one
place. Kindness involves way more than money.
• The phrase "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" may
were coined by peace activist Anne Herbert. Herbert says she wrote it on
a placemat at a Sausalito restaurant in 1982 or 1983.
• A book, Random Acts of Kindness, was released by Conari Press in 1993.
• The movie Pay It Forward (2000) is largely based on Random Acts of
Kindness.
• The French film Amélie (2001) follows a young woman who engages in
various random – and often anonymous – acts of kindness.
• Join Me is a group created in 2002 by humorist Danny Wallace; the
group's purpose is to encourage members to perform random acts of
kindness, particularly on "Good Fridays".
• In 2004, a Free Hugs Campaign was made popular by a music video on
YouTube.
• Scott Mills is a British DJ on BBC Radio 1 who used the term as the
name of a regular feature of his programme.
• Talk Radio Host David Stein of The Celebration of Life Through Sports
has also declared every Monday "Random Act of Kindness Day".
• Radio program Kfm Breakfast ran a "Random Act of Kindness Day" on the
June winter solstice in 2007[2], collecting ±50,000kgs of tinned food
for Cape Town's homeless shelters.
• The 2007 box-office success Evan Almighty ends with Evan and his
family on a weekend hiking trip when God reappears to Evan, telling him
that the way to change the world is by doing one Act of Random Kindness
("ARK") at a time; the film's central message.
And now we come to Oprah’s “BIG GIVE.” She has started it again, on a
world-wide basis. Stories are now playing on radio and TV everywhere
about people who are giving big and doing great things for others
stemming from her show. There are even more TV shows dedicated to giving
Big. How about the Make-over shows that do houses for people in need?
As we read the article above from The Week, we can clearly
see that giving has caught on in such a significant way because giving
to others bring happiness. Many times when a person has said to
me, “I just want to be happy,” I simply ask them “What makes you happy?’
Often times there is quite a long hesitation, but they will say
something. After they answer, I then ask, “what makes you happy?” And
after that answer I ask them, “What makes you happy?” This is a game to
get a more significant meaning of happiness that comes from your heart.
A great number of people give the answer of “I don’t know.”
After all the answers like sunshine, flowers and other eye-pleasing
things in the world, we come to ideas of a deeper meaning of happiness
and quite often one of the answers will be giving to or helping others.
This kind of answer is closer to what happiness is because happiness is
an inside job. You first have to be happy to realize what makes you
happy and then it shows all over your face. When you bring it forward
and offer it to the world, you find giving in order to make someone
happy is what expands and enhances your own happiness. It’s not just
about giving money and things, but also about giving love and
consideration and listening. Being kind is certainly one way to
give love and expand the feeling of being happy. Happiness comes as
surely as morning when you express gratitude for all that you have, and
then comes again in giant waves when you give it away. Giving and
receiving are truly one and the same thing.
Much of the money we earn at It’s A Miracle Center doing our events and
retreats is used to help other community organizations. We have donated
money and goods to Head Start, Boys & Girls Clubs, The Aids Foundation,
School Teachers, The Christmas Box House, various food banks and others
as well. When folks ask us about our happiness, we, too, find that a
happy feeling shows up more often when we are giving to others. We, as
well, accept donations and then turn them around, added to other
donations, and give them away. If you have any ideas about a BIG GIVE,
call us or send us an email and maybe we can all work together to make a
difference in the world of giving BIG.
Blessings of Joy.
We had this great 10-year-old cat named Jack who
just recently died.
Jack was a great cat, and the kids would carry him around and sit on him
and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long
on the mat in our bathroom.
We have three kids, and at the time of this story, they were 4 years
old, 3 years old, and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really
loved Chapstick. LOVED it. He kept asking to
use my Chapstick and then would lose it. Finally one day I showed him
where in the bathroom I keep my Chapstick and explained he could use it
whenever he wanted to, but he needed to put it right back in the drawer
after he finished.
That year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and
try to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two
boys were fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I was trying to nurse
my little one at the same time I was putting on my make-up. Everything
was a mess, and everyone had long forgotten that this was a wonderful
day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.
We finally had the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I was
looking for Eli. I searched everywhere and I finally went into the
bathroom. There was Eli. He was
applying my Chapstick very carefully to Jack's ... rear end. Eli looked
right into my eyes and said, "Chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know
that he is right -- their little
bottoms do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.
The only question to ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time
Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth!?!
And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us
that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little
creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been
using your Chapstick on the cat's butt.
Received from Pastor Tim and Good Clean Funny Laughs www.gcfl.net