YOU ARE EXQUISITE!!!!

What a beautiful life we get to live......when we are open and receptive to the exquisite beauty of Spirit expressing as Life, it can be overwhelming. And the best part is, that it is so all the time....everywhere. The question is whether we are tuned in or tuned out!

I am spending the last day in the Monterey Bay Peninsula area in California. Two days of board meetings and then 5+ days at the Asilomar grounds for the International Centers for Spiritual Living Leadership Conference. We are blazing a new trail, this was a whole new conference for leadership at a sort of new location for us. We have met here every year for 60 years, but it was always the conference for everyone in July. This conference was the leadership conference that previously traveled around the country and besides spiritual leaders there were other people in leadership positions at our centers. It was a great success.

Asilomar means 'refuge by the sea' and THAT IT IS!! (just look at the photo and that's only one scene captured by my iPhone)

So, back to my first paragraph......being tuned in or tuned out to Spirit's exquisite creation......
When we look deep enough and long enough and with an open enough heart we get to see what is REAL and since LOVE has created what is REAL we are shown a beauty beyond description. Once we see what is REAL, we want to live THAT. And the sweetest part of THAT is, that everything is given already within.....free for us to access it whenever we are ready!

What if......we saw ourselves that way more?
What if we saw each other that way more?
What if we saw all of life that way more??

You are exquisitely beautiful.....it is inherent by right of consciousness!
BLESSED BE!!!

Ohhhh, goodness....it has been TOO long!
I have missed YOU!!

Dear friend, I bow my head in humility for not keeping a promise to myself for doing a new blog every month....
I have skipped 2....I "owe" you :-)

Since the last blog much has happened, surely for all of us!
It is a new year and now on March 1st, a new month.
The month that brings us Spring: new life.

So much room for newness, new life.
Often in order for something new to be born, we have to let go of the old.
Ask yourself:"What in my life is no longer serving me?"

If you really do not know, it is for 2 reasons:
Everything is working fabulously for you and you serve and are served beautifully!
Or you think you don't know.
If you think you do not know, all you need to do is look at your life and turn within following your feelings.
Where do you feel 'less than', where do you feel you are not fully expressing yourself, not fully authentic?
THAT is what no longer serves you and you feel the way you feel for something within you is ready to let go of it.
It is "old" and something new wants to be born in and through you.

Let yourself fall, be willing to trust, turn within to Spirit and let Spirit lead the way...
Listen to that deeper voice of continuing new life within you and celebrate.
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate YOU!!
I DO!!!
Love always!

GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF PEACE..........

A Morristown Winter Day..


I LOVE WINTER! There is something pure and silent and sacred about first snow, it is so magical....
There is nothing like walking in fresh snow, knowing it has never been walked upon.
It makes me walk more consciously and more mindfully, then my mind slows down and my heart sings.......
It becomes an infusion to my spiritual practice, the kind that reminds me of animals hibernating in winter.

Most people do the opposite at this time of year.
They run around shopping, wrapping, giving or going to parties, eating and drinking more than they usually do and often not the stuff that gives them energy but weakens their energy.........and then the Holy Days are over and a new year has begun.

After many years of not really enjoying the Holidays, I have made a commitment to have them be what I want them to be.
I know this may be easier for me, for I have no family in the U.S. and I have no children.
I do however have friends and my beloved, Norman who has a small family and 2 sons: one is a young son of 12!

Still, the Holiday Season for me (since I do not consider myself a Christian) is about rest, silence, additional spiritual practice and reading non spiritual books: i.e. good fiction that brings me peace, inspiration, relaxation and joy! And KNITTING!!

I listen to my heart and follow what feels right. If that means shopping for gifts: I do that. If it means sending cards: I do that.
If it means NOT: I don't. My days seem longer and I refuel for the year to come.......

Give yourself the gift to do what fuels you during the Holiday Season, even if it is for a few hours.
Remember to do your spiritual practices and show up as LOVE, as LIGHT and/or as PEACE.
Letting that make the difference in the world.
Letting that be your gift to the world.
YOU ARE A GIFT! YOU ARE THE GIFT.
Know you are loved.
HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON.

When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found. Sufi Proverb

Dear ones.....I have had my share of grieving.....losing 2 siblings, both my parents, most uncles and aunts, and at least 6 really close friends. Grieving has truly become a spiritual practice!!

But listen up (don't pity me.....................like you would need too....)

There is something about grieving the loss of someone I love....something delicious......

It makes me feel so alive, so real, so naked, so raw.
I cannot hide, I cannot pretend, there is just no room for that.

So, all of a sudden life seems to become more real.
Suddenly, every moment becomes precious. Suddenly, I take nothing for granted. I check in with myself to be without regret, without forgetting to tell my loved ones I love them and without realizing how loved I am. Somehow, it is time to connect more deeply with my loved ones and to take MY OWN "inventory" rather then someone else's (which somehow always seems more easy to do. (DARN IT!) It truly is a time to forgive......to love..... to really see life for what it is!

So, my friend and colleague Jeffrey very suddenly and unexpectedly made his transition on Wednesday December 3rd, 2008.

This was my e-mail message to the e-field of my colleagues ( there were close to 100 beautiful heart filling e-mails being shared about how they felt for days............)



Our love unites us even more deeply because Jeffrey lived!


Thank you, beloved spiritual family, for your beautiful words. I am flip flopping between my heart (breaking) and my soul (laughing).........my heart aches...and then there are the words of Rumi who called the night of his passing 'Shebi-Arus', his wedding night, the occasion when he was finally united with his Beloved, God, in eternal life.

Jeffrey loved that.

Rumi said that night:
"Why should I be unhappy?
Each parcel of my being is in full bloom".

I can see Jeffrey's head tip slightly to the side and his sweet smile (ahhhhh) appear on his lips.
This picture (on top of this blog) was taken 6 weeks ago at our first ICSL Board meeting. It sucks, that it was our last.

Give Thanks!


Gratitude is a verb.
Gratitude is a spiritual practice.
Gratitude is discovering that we are already FULL!
Full of love, full of Spirit, full of abundance.
See, ..........when we are ungrateful, whether we are conscious of it or not, we are simply saying SPIRIT IS NOT!
It immediately slips us into lack, for as within so without.

So, this Holiday Season, simply practice being grateful!
When you slip, love yourself 'out of it'.
Turn to Spirit, remember Love is all there is and allow yourself to open wide to that which already is.
That which already is available for you, always.

When we are aligned with Spirit, there is so, so much to be grateful for.
And it is so much fun! So much fun to give thanks for EVERYTHING!
EVERYTHING!!

Have a blessed holiday season!

Something Deep & Beautiful.......

Something deep and beautiful is happening in the world of International Centers of Spiritual Living (formerly known as Religious Science International) and I feel honored to be a witness in an up close way. I recently was elected to its Board of Directors. What an auspicious time, what a historic event..............two organizations that teach Oneness came together and made a commitment to work together to be a greater force for good in the world. We welcome people from all walks of life, who seek a deeper experience of life, into a teaching that supports transformation through powerful spiritual tools. This allows for a world that works for everyone and makes it a better world to live it. We CAN BE a force for good: individually and collectively!

Strong solid ground is what we stand on as we move forward into a greater idea. Its time has come.
It is such an honor to serve on the Board of Directors with 12 other beloved souls who are deeply committed to a greater idea.
Look at those glorious feet in the picture! :-)
I am so moved by their generosity and their integrity and THIS is only the beginning.
Know you are part of something GREAT!

Whether you are reading this for the first time as someone new to this teaching and organization or if you are someone that has been 'around' for a long time, you are part of something really great, and really sacred....be open to the huge shift in consciousness that is taking place in the world!
When you watch the news, you know that the entire world is being shaken to its core.....when the pendulum swings way up, it has to come back. We have gone far in many ways and it is time to really look, really listen and become very clear about what matters most. I can promise you it is not our possesions, it is not money, it is more intangible and THAT is the invitation.
We get to dive deep and explore what's most important to us.

Listen, have faith and serve the deep.

Called to Something Greater.......

Have you ever been asked to do something or be a part of something and your first reaction is something like "No Way, I can't do that"!? And then there was another voice that says:"I must do that"!? It's that experience of the human self coming from the lesser and the soul coming from the greater, all at the same time. It's the kind of experience where you MUST follow your soul's call.
I think there comes a time for all of us when the soul's call is louder, greater, more real and unavoidable!
Well, that's what happened to me this year when I was asked if I was willing to be on the Religious Science International's Board of Directors?

I truly knew that after 20 years as a minister of the now International Centers of Spiritual Living (formerly Religious Science International) my time had come to serve at that deeper level. I have held the vision in my heart all this time, for our organization as a vibrant, powerful, healthy spiritual teaching organization. There were two organizations teaching the Science of Mind, since there was a split in 1954 (even before I was born) and 54 years later we are not only coming together -alos my vision for 20 years-and integrating, but I get to be a significant part of it through leadership. These are exciting and historic times!! And now I have come to be chosen as a member of the Board of Directors by the organization. I know that being chosen was truly first an inner call and then the outer followed.”

Being part of the leadership at this level is a great honor and I am committed to sharing my talents and gifts to the best of my ability. I am also excited about learning and growing, for I know when we step into a new and higher place of being we cannot help but be transformed.