Tag Archives: Release

BE-holding Light

One cannot hold Light while one is holding darkness. It would be like filling your arms with laundry and then trying to pick up a bushel of apples with the same arms. The laundry would have to be set down first. For this reason, Jesus told his followers, when you pray “… first be reconciled with your brother.” Matt 5:24

When you wish to hold the Light, to affirm wholeness and the Light of God in action, you must first release all notions of darkness. Reconcile these things by acknowledging they are not the Truth and requesting of Spirit; that whatever is not Truth or Light be released, dissolved, set down and overshadowed by Light. In this way, you are released and healed and those for whom you pray are also released and made new.

Is There Room in Your Closet?

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Does your closet sometimes get so full that you have trouble locating what you would like to wear? This happens to me more often than I care to admit. An overflowing closet might be exciting if everything in it were something I actually wanted to wear. But no, many of the items just take up space making it difficult to find what I am looking for.

A closet is not unlike the human mind. Like a mind, it stores necessary things as well as those that are no longer useful. Even when not conscious of the items held there, they sit, waiting, taking up space. And like a closet, the mind is unlikely to relinquish the things it holds unless there is a conscious the choice to let them go. We often hold thoughts and ideas about ourselves, about others, and about the world that are no longer useful, that in fact, cause so much crowding in our consciousness that little space remains for the creative thoughts that would cause us to thrive.

Think about that old tattered shirt in your closet. It’s there every time you open the door. You know the one; the one you push out of the way over and over again trying to find something more appealing. You know you would rather wash an entire load of clothes than wear it, yet there it hangs, taking up space, mocking your inability to surrender it to the giveaway bag. What thought, idea, or belief is lingering in your consciousness taking up space like that tattered old shirt? What belief about yourself is filling your consciousness day and night leaving little room for the peace and joy you seek?

If you are seeking joy, but holding thoughts of anger, fear, guilt, remorse, or regret, there is little room for joy to seep in. There is of course nothing wrong with having these thoughts or feelings. They are a part of our human experience and often helpful in defining ourselves. But holding onto them until they become a tattered memory squeezing out the joy we seek is counterproductive to a life that thrives. You are intended to thrive. You are intended to experience joy. You were meant to “be fruitful and multiply.”

Whatever that thought is, you really don’t need it anymore. You know you don’t. Take it out of there right now. Take a good look at it and realize it does not define you. It is not who and what you are. It is just some fleeting idea that crossed your mind one day and decided to settle there. Let it go. Drop it in the giveaway bin or set it on the porch and call the universe to come and pick it up. You haven’t needed it in years.

And now quickly, before it wanders back in there, replace it with something else – perhaps its absolute opposite. It might feel strange at first, but over time the new thought will become a comfortable part of your attire.

God Has A Scathingly Brilliant Idea!

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Photo Credit: Alexas_Fotos

The phrase “scathingly brilliant idea” continuously filtered into my mind as I prepared my final Sunday talk as senior minister at Unity of Livonia. The phrase, always a favorite of mine, comes from the infamous words of Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) in the movie “The Trouble with Angels.” As I pondered the intention of my talk, I questioned the word “scathingly.” It seems that Webster’s defines scathingly as “critical” or “harsh,” and that didn’t, at first anyway, seem to fit my intention.

But the word persisted, and when a word or a thought persists, I am compelled to go deeper. What does scathingly mean to me? In the movie, “scathingly” seemed to indicate something out of the ordinary, exceptional if a little risky. Mary Clancy (Mills) and her friend Rachel (June Harding) were two adolescents who had been sent to an all-girls, Catholic boarding school. These so-called scathingly brilliant ideas generally earned them a stint in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans. Was scathingly really the word I wanted to use?

Critical can mean something derogatory – but it can also mean important, vital, or crucial. Harsh, as in criticism, can mean unbridled, unlimited, or unadulterated. Hmm… now we were getting somewhere. These definitions seemed to fit my intention more closely. You see, I believe that God has a Scathingly Brilliant idea – and the idea is YOU!

You are an idea, a crucial, unlimited, and brilliant idea in the Mind of God. In your most unadulterated essence, you are a perfect spiritual idea taking form and expressing God as you. In this earthly experience, there are many twists and turns as we endeavor to fully express this scathingly brilliant idea. At times it may seem our endeavors or the experiences of our lives have us scrubbing pots and pans when we were planning something much more exciting. Although Mary and Rachel spent a great deal of time scrubbing pots and pans, they also spent a lot of time growing and evolving. They grew in compassion. They grew in their sense of purpose. They discovered their own gifts and they learned to appreciate the talents of others.

Changes, twists and turns, pots and pans, are all a part of our spiritual evolution. Evolution is another scathingly, brilliant idea in the Mind of God. Everything is always changing, growing and evolving. Evolution is the activity of Life, and it has a crucial characteristic – something is always falling away to allow something new to emerge.

The new year is a perfect time to reflect on what is falling away on its own and what you will intentionally let fall away. It is also an excellent time to focus your attention on what is being called forth from you. What is Life calling you to be? To do? To let fall away?

The New Year is often marked by resolutions for being or doing something better than before. Usually, these intentions focus on diet, exercise, habits, and behaviors. This year, why not set just one resolution, one that will inform and strengthen all the others? Let your resolution for 2019 be this; to allow no one and no thing to hinder you in expressing more of the Scathingly Brilliant Idea in the Mind of God that is YOU!

Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of the soon to be released book, The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings

What will you leave behind in 2018?

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freedom-2053281_1920-2 The close of a calendar year is a traditional time for reflection; a review of the year’s finest moments and its challenges. In preparation for a new year there are often a number of things we choose to leave behind. Perhaps you’ve experienced a loss, a physical challenge, a relationship issue, a career bump, or a financial upset. Then there are the things we experience together; divisiveness in government, hurricanes, out of control fires, tsunamis, terrorism, and mass shootings. Who wouldn’t want to leave these things behind?

It is unlikely anyone would want to take the challenges of 2018 into the new year, but perhaps the truth is 2019 will present its own challenges. The question is what will you leave behind that will better equip you for the year to come. What gift will you discover in your experiences that will allow you to walk through the obstacles that appear with ease and grace?

Although we may want to leave behind the events themselves, we would be better served if we could determine the underlying emotions that caused the events to disturb our peace. The most common are fear and anger.

Fear has its purpose. It is a physiological response to danger – but it does not know how to differentiate between real danger and imagined danger. Leaving behind unwarranted fear would allow us to face what comes before us with a greater sense of balance and clarity. To leave fear behind it must be replaced by something greater. Perhaps that is a knowledge that nothing can harm the Truth of you – that you are an eternal spiritual being having a physical experience.

Anger also has a purpose. It is an energy that causes us to initiate change when something appears to be out of order. Yet anger can be detrimental when it is not directed toward positive change. It can consume our energies and greatly disturb our peace. Leaving behind unproductive anger would make room for focusing our spiritual nature toward positive change. This would allow us to tune in to the more harmonious energy of Love and project a higher vibration into the world. Love is far more powerful and initiates long lasting transformation.

What will you leave behind as the new year approaches? I choose to leave behind unwarranted fear and replace it with knowing God within me is more powerful than anything that comes before me. I choose to leave behind anger and replace it with Love.

Perhaps you would like to join me this Sunday, December 30^th at 10:00 am for Unity of Livonia’s Burning Bowl service. We will explore the things we choose to leave behind, write them on a special ashless piece of paper and place them in the burning bowl flame. In the twinkling of any eye they will disappear and give us an opportunity to create an affirmation to carry into the new year. Hope to see you there!

Let Me Be Light

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Where there are shadows, let me be Light. Though we may bury them deeply, it is not uncommon for us to carry a shadow or two with us that can be triggered by some outer experience. Shadows are nothing more than perceived obstacles or unresolved fears. They block the Light but they do not extinguish it. Things that trigger our individual and collective shadows merely make what was buried visible. A shadow that has become visible is something that can be resolved. It can be dissolved and released. Dissolving the shadow is a matter of being Light. Being Light is a matter of allowing Divine Light to shine through. It is a matter of thinking, feeling, speaking, listening and acting from the Divine inspiration to be the Light of God in the world. God loves. God speaks with the vibration of Love. God listens, hears and responds. God forgives. God includes. God shares. God is the Light and Harmony we seek. Today, where shadows appear let us Be Light.

Gratitude: A Magnet for Good

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gratitude-dreamstimefree_138084 GRATITUDE is the miraculous awareness that one is surrounded and supported by Divine Love; that a need or desire has been anticipated and met. GRATITUDE is a universal feeling, a miraculous state of being with the power to open our entire being to a receptive state of consciousness. When we are in GRATITUDE we are in alignment with our higher self and with the Source of our being. GRATITUDE and miracles are synonymous, for it is GRATITUDE that opens the door to the experience of all that is miraculous. As I look for miracles in everyday life, I find that I look for those things I feel most grateful for. GRATITUDE is a feeling, an energy, a vibration and a portal to the miraculous. As I recognize and appreciate the many gifts of life my awareness expands, and my eyes are open to even more. GRATITUDE has the capacity to open the heart, relax tightened muscles and release feelings of fear, anger and separation. One cannot be grateful and angry simultaneously. One cannot be grateful and fearful at once. GRATITUDE is the recognition of God-ness in expression as miracles, large and small, dancing in the rhythm of Life.

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving at Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan.

The Fossils in our Souls

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FOSSILS, petrified bits of earthly history, are miraculous vessels of time. They provide a peek into the past of our planet giving us a three-dimensional snapshot to all that transpired before us. They are fascinating to behold and sometimes offer us clues to living more harmoniously with our environment than the lifeforms that preceded us. The soul of humankind, the individualized expression of God is also a vessel of time. The soul holds all the experiences of a person, each thought and emotion captured and stored for our review. Unlike a FOSSIL though, we are not petrified. What we hold in the history of our beingness is not written in stone. What has been written in our minds and hearts can be changed, evolved, transformed and even dissolved. That thought, that belief you’ve lived with for so long that leaves a heavy, uncomfortable imprint in you? What would it look like if you changed it? What would it look like if you evolved it, allowed it to grow into something more affirming and whole? What would you look like if you simply let it go?

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving at Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan.

A Miracle A Day, Day 47

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rock climbing.2425052047_37c19eac29_q RELEASE is the ability to let go of something or to cause something to be freed. What a miraculous feeling it is to RELEASE a fear or thought that has held me captive. As a new rock climbing enthusiast I can appreciate the physical ability to RELEASE one rock in order to grasp the next. RELEASING my grip on the hold requires strength and faith. I must build my muscles so I can reach, push and pull, but I must also trust that my partner and climbing equipment will keep me safe. With the powers of strength and faith I let go of the rock I have held so tightly and grab the next one, climbing a little higher. The same is true of my thoughts and fears and long-held limiting beliefs. I must have strength and faith in the power and presence of Spirit to let go and let God. As I RELEASE what I have held tightly; fear, judgment, pain, shame or blame, I find that the next and higher thought is right there within my grasp and I climb a little higher in mind and Spirit. Yes, RELEASE is a miraculous quality of both the human experience and the spiritual evolution of my highest Self.

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving at Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan. To view the entire Miracle A Day series, visit her Facebook page.

Seekers of the Lost Ark, Part 3 – The Blessing of Truth

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In our series Seekers of the Lost Ark we have discovered a mystical meaning to the list of covenants held within the innermost part of the Ark of the Covenant. In addition to sound rules for living they are also the profound spiritual blessing of the Mother-Father Everything God that Jesus called Father.

The words “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor” are more than a command to not lie when explored through a metaphysical lens. Although honesty is certainly a virtue and this is a great rule to live by, the nature of an indwelling God urges us to look deeper and ask the questions, “What does it mean to bear something?”; “What is false?” and “Who is thy neighbor?”

To bear something is to carry something. And of course what is false is not true. Your neighbor is every living being including yourself. And if the only absolute Truth is that God is the One Power, One Presence, One Activity in our lives, then anything that is not God is false.

Think about that. Your neighbor, every living thing is an expression of the One Power, One Presence, One Activity, God the Good. Carrying anything about your neighbor that is not grounded in this Truth is a great weight to bear. It is a burden. It is a false judgment. It is witnessing or seeing something other than Truth in another.

The blessing is you will not carry anything that is false about your or your neighbor. You will see only Truth. And to experience this Truth we must rest on the previous blessings. There is only One God and we will not have any false gods in our life. Nothing false will have power over us. We will remember the Sabbath, the quiet place within where we are one with God and we can see the Truth in all things.

And when we find ourselves carrying a heavy burden we might ask ourselves, “Is it True?” Is the burden I carry the Truth of me? Is it the Truth of the other person or situation? If it is a burden, it is not Truth.

One of the tools we can use to turn our thoughts from what is false to what is Truth is “The Work” as described by Byron Katie in her book “Loving What Is.” When a thought, feeling or experience is causing us to feel less burdened we can ask these questions proposed by Katie;

Is it true?
Can I be absolutely certain it is true?
How do I feel when I think the thought?
How would I be without the thought?

If a thought or feeling is a burden, it is not true. Or at least it is not the absolute Truth. Most often the second question will reveal a glimpse of a greater truth waiting to be explored. Without the thought we would of course be more peaceful, more centered, more aware of our wholeness.

To truly really release a troubling thought we must fill the space with a thought that IS true, something we can affirm that brings us to a new level of thinking. Here Katie tells us to turn the thought around, to try it on in different forms. Perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps there is something in us that is being mirrored to provide a greater understanding of Truth. Turning the thought around may be a revelation that transforms our lives. The new thought may allow us to let go of judgments of ourselves and others forever.

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