Category Archives: Positive Thinking

Happy? St. Patrick’s Day

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I wondered this morning why we say Happy St. Patrick’s Day. We could just as easily say Blessed St. Patrick’s Day. What makes this a happy day? (Besides the abundance of green beer?) In fact, what makes us happy any day?

I have a Happy Scale in my new day planner. Each morning I am supposed to rate my happiness from one to ten, with ten being the happiest I can be. I used this for a while before I noticed I never circled the number ten. I was mainly landing on eights and nines because I was working through something in my personal life. I was saving the ten for the day that situation would be resolved. It was as if I had determined I simply could not be totally happy until this issue was worked out in a way that could make me happy.

How absurd is that? Nothing makes us happy. Happiness is a choice. I heard someone say recently, “If you wait until everything in your life is okay before you can be happy, you’ll never be happy.” I was deeply touched by the wisdom of these words. They made me wonder if it was advisable to rate my happiness at all. By doing so, wasn’t I affirming a level of happiness less than I wanted to experience? What if I just circled 10 every morning and lived into that intention? I think this is a far more powerful way to use this scale.

If nothing can actually make us happy, how do we go about being happy? Affirming happiness would undoubtedly be a vital step. But more, looking within to acknowledge what we are and who we’ve come here to be can reconnect us to our divinity and a far greater experience of happiness. Whatever is happening in our human experience cannot compare to the oneness and wholeness we know when we look within to our divinity.

Perhaps that is how we might think of St. Patrick’s Day. A day to affirm the happiness of Spirit, of knowing on the deepest level that we are one with all that is and that nothing can disturb this indwelling peace and joy.

St. Patrick was born Irish. He became the patron saint and champion of Ireland through his actions. He was born in Scotland and was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Irish pirates. When he escaped, he attended a monastery. Then he returned to Ireland to preach the gospel, build churches, and drive away the metaphorical snakes. Metaphorical snakes because Ireland never had snakes. The reverence afforded to St. Patrick is for driving out that which caused pain and suffering by drawing people closer to their divine heritage. In doing so, he changed how people thought, how they felt, and the actions they took.  Maybe this is why Irish Eyes Are Laughing!

When we say Happy St. Patrick’s Day today, let us remember to drive out the snaky thoughts of limitation, separation, and duality. Let us build the sanctuary of our hearts into a cathedral of Light and love. Let us be reminded of our divinity and connection to others, and let those thoughts guide us into a greater experience of happiness and joy.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and multiple blessings on this day of celebrating the divinity of all. May pots of golden light shower you with love, Light, and wholeness.

“May the strength of God guide us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore.” – Saint Patrick.

Rev. Eileen Patra

Erin Go Bragh

Physically Apart – Together in Heart

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Physically Apart – Together in Heart

Although COVID-19 has limited our physical gatherings and much of our day-to-day activities, it has not separated us in either Spirit or Heart. We have been able to connect through the wonders of technology, including video calls and live streaming church services.  Additionally, we have been encouraged to go outside, to walk our dogs, to take walks with people with whom we live. And here is what I’ve noticed on those walks.

There is a peaceful quiet in the neighborhood that feels simultaneously good and somehow foreign. I don’t remember when I’ve felt such a powerful stillness in the city. I suspect it was some lifetime ago, as a child playing in a neighbors yard. It is quiet, the birds are singing profusely, and neighbors are stopping what they are doing to say hello. And not just hello. There is a smile, a look of knowing of one another’s need to feel connected that leaks through that smile and touches my heart. In this time apart, we are truly connected by the heart.

Did you know that when two humans interact with one another, their heartbeats begin to synchronize? It seems that close physical proximity draws our heart energy into a matching rhythm. But this coherence of heart does not have to remain limited to physical proximity.

When we take time apart – not from one another – but from daily tasks, media reports, and worry, by going within to that very same heart space, we connect. We connect with our spiritual being, the divine spark that dwells within each of us. We connect through a network of Spirit that exceeds the Cloud, hosted by the Allness that we sometimes refer to as God, Allah, Spirit, or the One.

In the Allness, there is an infinite connection; each of us is like a strand of Light reaching outward into the world of form and returning back again. In this turning back again, we find rest, wholeness, and a thing called dominion.

In the Book of Genesis, God grants humankind dominion the earth and all the things that creep upon it. The most basic interpretation of this passage reveals a gift, one that allows humanity to rise to the top of the food chain. But there is so much more to this message.

Dominion means the ability to control or govern. Metaphysically, the plants, animals, and things that creep represent thoughts, words, and actions. Thoughts and ideas that are fruitful and in coherence with the Allness produce experiences of abundance, creativity, and well-being. Thoughts out of alignment with the wholeness of God may, when given much attention, create experiences that lack wholeness and well being.

Created in the image and likeness of the power that created the universe, we, too, are creative. Our thoughts, words, and actions create our experiences, the quality of our relationships, and ultimately, our world.

Certainly, fleeting thoughts like “what would happen if a dinosaur entered the room right now?” are not likely to manifest. Why? Because we don’t give those kinds of thoughts, much attention. They pass through our minds, we smile or frown, and then we think something else.

It’s the thoughts we give a great deal of attention to, the ones we allow to occupy our minds and hearts, that produce more of the same. Our thoughts are contagious. They grow and multiply – and they tend to manifest in our bodies, our experiences, and our world. So, why not choose those thoughts carefully, from a higher consciousness?

What if Love and all the ways it harmonizes, draws together, and replicates itself, were our most prominent thought? What if kindness and compassion and the assurance of abundance occupied the most significant space in our minds and hearts?

The thought would become contagious. It would expand and open those channels of Light that connect us one heart to another. The resulting energy would become so strong that nothing could interrupt the flow of Love and Light from one heart to the other. Nothing out of alignment with this integral connection with God would have any power or ability to manifest or replicate. We would be choosing to exercise dominion over all that manifests in the world. We would know that, at times, we may be physically apart, but always, we are together in the heart and mind of God.

© 2020. Eileen Patra.

Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings. She is currently serving as co-minister of the Spiritual Life Center in Troy, Michigan, and working on her second book, Living as the Ark.

From Dream to Reality

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The Making of The Mystical Ark

Eileen with first copy of The Mystical Ark

I had an idea once. I thought there might be a deeper meaning to the scripture commonly known as The Ten Commandments. As a student at what is now known as Unity Worldwide Spiritual Institute, I learned to interpret the Bible metaphysically, meaning beyond the physical. I found this view of scripture fascinating as the words on the page opened up to reveal an underlying story that made so much sense it brought tears to my eyes.

I learned that the name Moses means “drawn from the water,” and that water represents a sea of consciousness, in this case, a consciousness of bondage and limitation. Suddenly, this story was not about a group of people that lived thousands of years ago. It was a story about you and me; a story about being drawn out of a sea of negative thought and freed from limiting beliefs.

It was from this expanded perspective that the first seed thoughts of The Mystical Ark were planted in my mind. The theme first emerged as a series Sunday school lessons titled, Seekers of the Lost Ark. The Indiana Jones movies were popular then, and the allusion to the Lost Ark film made the lessons more engaging for the kids. Years later, the idea took shape as a series of Sunday sermons, followed by a collection of essays that I was determined to make into a book.

Progress on the book was painfully slow, and the distractions were many. A half-written manuscript sat on my shelf for a year or two. But the idea would not go away. I would move on to something else, and then someone would ask when I was going to do the next talk in the series or when I would publish the book. Spirit seemed to be using people around me to encourage me to get busy with the book – and soon. So, I planned a writing binge; a weekend with the house to myself, no distractions, and forty-eight hours of nearly non-stop writing. Surely, I would complete this project before Monday rolled around. It was a great plan. I had lots of enthusiasm for it, but it didn’t happen quite that way. That weekend writing spree turned out to be just the beginning.

The morning I was to begin my writing marathon, I was awakened by a lucid dream. In this dream, a small group of explorers sat in a circle around the Ark of the Covenant. They were dirty. Their clothing was torn and spattered with blood. They tried to open the box, but it repelled them. They were all unable to touch it – except for one member of the team. When she approached the relic, her hand slipped right through the invisible force-field that had deterred the others. Then, the box opened, revealing a passageway to another realm of being. The entire team was pulled through the opening into a mystical experience that would forever change their lives.

The dream clung to me in vivid detail. I tried inserting the scene as a fictional forward to my exegeses of the Ark. But that didn’t work. The fictional scene was engaging – but the shift to the essays was abrupt and disorienting. It was as if two different books had been glued together rather than one leading gently into the other.

It seemed this book was destined to be a work of fiction; a story with relatable characters that would draw the reader into the experience. Writing a fictional novel was something I had never considered. I wasn’t even sure where to begin. What characters would I need to create? There was the small group of explorers in the opening scene, but I didn’t know who there were or what they would represent. What I did know was that I had to write this book. It would not leave me alone. It permeated my every thought. The Mystical Ark wanted to be born and was asking me to be its midwife.

But how does an author of spiritual essays and inspirational articles successfully birth a fictional novel? I was about to find out. The next two years would be spent putting the principles of visioning and positive thinking into action, developing a disciplined writing routine, reading every book on writing I could get my hands on, researching everything from geography and anthropology to the genetics of hair color – and oh – writing!

What began as an idea and a dream planted in my mind and heart blossomed into reality. The book is now published, and available from retailers around the world. The characters I created and lived with for the past two years are now engaging and entertaining an expanding group of readers. It is a deeply satisfying experience, and I look forward to sharing more about the steps I took to turn that dream into reality in blog posts to come.

© 2019. Eileen Patra

Eileen Patra is the author of The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings and an ordained Unity minister. She is currently guest speaking at a variety of Unity churches and working on her next book, Living as the Ark. Learn more about The Mystical Ark at themysticalark.com

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