Living Consciously August 7, 2009

Dear friends,

The human need for order is a natural counterbalance to the complexity of our lives. My desk can get very messy with piles of paper and notes to myself and phone messages and the like. But I will clear it and organize the paper and put things back in place regularly. Outer order supports inner peace and vice versa. The same is true at home. Periodically I clean out drawers which have become the holding cell for things I do not want to deal with in the moment; coupons, cut out news articles, pens with no ink, those little packets of soy sauce. I seem to function better when my surroundings are restored to order, although I can live with disorder for a time, knowing it is temporary.

The human mind is very capable of dealing with disruptions in the flow of a routinized life, such as an illness, a financial setback, a broken relationship, if there is the awareness that these are temporary and they will pass. The complexity of modern life requires a mind that is organized around a fundamental perception ie: I am greater than this experience. I am the creative center in this moment. This mess can be put to rights with a shift in my thinking. I see the natural flow of change in this circumstance. Something new and good is emerging by means of this.

Order and disorder are entwined in a cosmic dance of creation. Our spiritual practice is to find the witness behind them and enjoy the show.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes

Living Consciously August 10, 2009

Dear friends,

Emerson said that the universe is but the slow effect of an originating cause.

I feel that Cause to be a kind of cosmic joy, energy so vast and focussed that it literally cannot be contained in the invisible but has to erupt into form. Each of us was conceived from that same joy. Granted, the joy that brought us into being was brief, but it was nonetheless real. We could not be kept hidden one nanosecond longer. The sheer will of consciousness to produce itself in form is a power so great, nothing can stop the eventual out-picturing of an idea if it is sustained by joy and passion.

These characteristics of holistic success are evident in the lives of people we admire and respect. Their ability to sustain interest and clarity we might refer to as tenacity or stubbornness or single-mindedness but those are the effects of passion and joy. Anything to which we give our passionate attention, will grow. Whatever is the child of our joy will flourish. It may be a business, a relationship, a family, a project. Nothing will retain its vitality without it. The good news is that an infusion of natural joy and renewed passion will reawaken the vital force in those parts of our life which feel lifeless.

Right now this truth is most evident in the condition of planet earth herself. The decimation of her natural resources, the cavalier treatment of this environment are the slow effects of a shift from the passion for Nature to the passion for technology and materiality. Our joy has been transmuted into temporary elation at the acquisition of shiny objects. It is no wonder that many of our other relationships feel dead as well.

This is a spiritual emergency and it requires a spiritual solution. As simplistic as it sounds, the first step to regaining passion and joy in any circumstance is Gratitude. It is a deep inner sense of fullness and wholeness. It is a spiritual experience in itself. It restores us to the originating Cause which gave us life and which will infuse new life into our world. Gratitude is the awareness of the originating Cause within us. It is to acknowledge the universal in the personal. It is to feel the Presence of Intelligence and Love right here and right now.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes