Living Consciously April 10, 2009

Dear friends,

In marketing taste tests of various products, results show that the majority of people respond to the packaging more than the product! When the bottle size and the label of a good quality brandy were changed to look more like that of the most popular brand, sales figures increased dramatically. Changing the colors on a can of seven-up caused people to insist that there was more lime added to the drink. They were incensed that someone was messing with their favourite beverage!

Appearances can be deceiving, as we all know, yet we are quick to judge and to make a decision about whether or not we will engage with whatever we are seeing. The great violinist, Joshua Bell, recently stood and played on the streets of a major city and no one stopped to listen! One woman dropped a coin in his open case. Because he was not on a concert stage they could not hear his exquisite music.

Without investigating for themselves, people will dismiss new ideas that appear to be very different or unusual, even if those ideas could change their lives for the better. We allow ourselves to be fooled by our own unconscious prejudices and past experience. Right now millions of young people are searching for answers to age old questions. They are longing for spirituality but will not look in a church for it.

What could be right in front of us that we cannot see? What if the answer to your deepest concerns were looking back at you in the mirror? Maybe the packaging doesn’t look like a creative genius, but the contents are seriously gifted! The answer we seek is always right where we are, no matter our age or past circumstances. You are the one you have been seeking.

Peace and blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes

Living Consciously April 13, 2009

Dear friends,

In some states the freeway system includes a fast lane for cars carrying more than one person. It was instigated to help control the emission levels in the atmosphere. Take one car off the road, multiply that by thousands and there is a measurable improvement. The same is true with recycling of any kind. It is the collective effort that makes the difference.

Something similar happens in us when we begin to shift condemnation thinking into praise, one thought at a time. Suddenly we are thinking in clusters of positivity. For example if we decide to stop seeing lack and scarcity everywhere and instead, name the good in our lives; if we choose to see the abundance of nature and call it ours, then we notice that prosperity thoughts are joining together. We are creating a web of prosperity thinking. Abundance is not just what we have in the bank. It is everywhere around us and needs to be acknowledged. How are we going to generate wealth if all we see is poverty?

Looking for injustices calls them into focus, but is only the first step. What follows must be our belief that we humans are capable of real caring and love for one another. Noticing the kindness of strangers and the compassion of groups who assist others is a healthy state of mind. Soon we feel a renewed faith in humanity, our hearts open to what we can do together and our minds percolate with creative ideas. We need to have faith in each other, which comes from the awareness that we are all capable of greater love and compassion than we have ever displayed. Like clusters of good thoughts, we belong together, we need each other, we can do anything together. Look for the good news!

Peace and blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes