January 6, 2025

Is there a person who concerns or troubles you? They may be a family member, friend, neighbor, or associate. Are you possibly concerned about their welfare, their decisions, or their chosen pathway? You may be so worried that you lie awake at night thinking about their situation. Maybe there is a nagging feeling you need to do something to help, but nothing you have done works, and nothing you think of would work. We suffer.  

January 5, 2025

When I was in my early twenties, a friend of mine entered classical psychoanalysis because of her anxiety. She was well-to-do, and could afford to meet with her analyst two times a week for four years. She wanted to rid herself of debilitating anxiety. So, she thought if she made sense of all her life’s experiences and complexes, she’d live a much more happy life. I recall her saying that she was always so on edge, that even when something went wrong on the “I Love Lucy" show, she bit her fingernails.

January 4, 2025

It is tough to apply consciousness when we feel unfairly treated. Life may have given us a terrific blow, or we may have been dealt a bad hand compared to others. Sometimes, we think our particular deficits place us below others. We notice that other people have wonderful attributes we did not receive, so we feel short-changed. We may have had to work hard while things seem to come quickly to others. We say, “This isn’t fair; it isn’t right.” We may have had losses or injuries that others have not endured; therefore, we feel defective or sometimes even “snake-bitten.”

January 3, 2025

If something is not going right, is amiss, or unsettling, we have choices about handling it. If we take the path of least resistance, it’s usually our ego’s fixation and perception of the world.

January 2, 2025

The issue of whether or not we apply our higher ideals to our lives is not a new topic. It has been under discussion for centuries. When we do not apply our values to the issues of life, it is because we are absent-minded, out of touch, avoidant, distracted, or enamored with other things. We may be unconscious or, in the worst-case scenario, hypocritical. All of us who fall beneath the saints and angels have been in one of those categories. And this has been true since the beginning of human history. 

January 1, 2025

As a child, I kept my crayons in an old fruitcake tin. My colors were usually broken, with dull points and peeled-down paper wrappers. They worked, but never as good as the new ones. That’s why I loved to get a new box of color crayons. 

December 31, 2024

Endings—today is one of them. It closes in 2024. Whatever the year has brought us, good, bad, and indifferent, is finished for this segment of time. This is a day of demarcation—it finalizes 2024 and opens the way for the next 365 days— another segment of time that is measured by a completion of Earth’s complete journey around the sun.

December 30, 2024

Our most important project here on earth is to bring our soul to its wholeness. And we do that by growing in consciousness. The more we are aware of ourselves, the world, and the truth, the more we apply that awareness to our concerns, circumstances, and relationships. So, our soul reaches wholeness through the application of consciousness. 

December 29, 2024

Applying our spiritual knowledge to the issues of our lives can be a challenge. We may believe something wholeheartedly yet not actually put it into practice. The ego has a stronghold, and we all too often fall prey to its unhealthy patterns of behavior. Therefore, application of our consciousness must be deliberate and intentional. But once we exercise conscious behavior enough, we become a new creature.

December 28, 2024

My friend, George Fountain Cox, left this realm seven years ago. He was 88, a clinical pastoral counselor, and a fantastic artist. As with most artists, George began painting inanimate objects or still life. Then, it progressed into more abstract and impressionistic works. George was a regionally known watercolorist and collage artist.

December 27, 2024

As a child, I would often sit in a giant Mimosa tree in the backyard. Though I knew nothing about holy places, thin places, or consecrated ground, it was magical as if in another world— if you stroked the Mimosa’s leaves they would slowly fold up like they were going to sleep. And in the spring, its puffy blossom looked like hundreds of little pink feathers with white tips and an amazing fragrance! You could twirl the blossoms on your face and they softly stroked it. After springtime, the blossoms died, and the tree bore beans well into the Autumn. The green pods hung there swaying in the breeze. 

December 26, 2024

Imagining something in a spiritual context is a spiritual practice and differs substantially from everyday imagining. We can compare spiritual imagining to typical imagining. They are comparable to walking on the holy ground versus on a busy sidewalk. 

December 25, 2024

This is a day of soul— of light—of giving and receiving—of celebrating the birth of Jesus. In the soul, every present moment bubbles with fresh arisings. What gifts of soul await you at this moment—in all the moments of this day? 

December 24, 2024

On this Christmas Eve, we pause to give thanks for all the many blessings of this year. And we prepare our hearts for tomorrow when we receive the Christ child into our homes and souls. Being with friends and family is a precious time; it is a season—a holy period celebrated each year by Christian churches to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a time of giving and nurturing. It has affected so many people that over the years it has become a secular as well as religious holiday. Yet had it not been for a teenage mother named Mary, her baby, and a man called Joseph two thousand years ago, there would be no Christmas. 

December 23, 2024

The conscious life requires forethought before we embark on something new. Going into uncharted territory first calls for us to imagine that territory, and then we build mental models of the people, circumstances, settings, and anything we expect to find in the unknown. To imagine, we usually begin with our knowledge and then build on it with what we imagine may exist beyond it.

December 22, 2024

Imagining is part of goal setting, which paves the way for our future. Yes, wishing, hoping, visualizing, and working on the emerging plan are essential in manifesting our dreams. Therefore, imagination is also a key to our becoming the fulfillment of the seed planted in us at our making. 

December 21, 2024

In anticipation of what's to come, we entertain thoughts, visualizations, and feelings. This is a normal psychological process. For example, if we are excited about a high school reunion, we may anticipate or "pre-live" it by picturing the event's setting, people, and activities. This is referred to as imaginal anticipation, which is not only a process of visualizing; it includes having thoughts and feelings. By anticipating a wonderful event, we experience it in all three centers, even before it happens. 

December 20, 2024

The root word of "imagine" is the Latin word imāginārī, which means "to fancy" or "to picture mentally." It's a derivative of "imago," which means image or likeness. 

To Imagine something is to picture it in our mind's eye. We can picture people, objects, ideas, activities, circumstances, and everything. Our mind not only creates still pictures (stills) but also creates entire imaginal movies. Our minds are well-trained to use images because our subconscious uses them every night to dream.