Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Moving - One of the Top Ten Stressors

So, VISION moved into its new digs the first week of August. It's been a process of unpacking and trying to find places for things. Our office space is smaller by about 300 square feet so we are trying to move three offices into two. We are in the process of creating two classrooms that can serve both children on Sunday mornings and adults during the week, daytime and evenings. It's quite a process. Everyone is pulling together to come up with creative ways to store things and serve the community. I know we are in the right place at the right time and we are poised to grow and thrive in our new space. It's fun, exciting, scary, overwhelming, and challenging to make a space that is inviting, friendly, warm, and uncluttered, neat, clean and welcoming. We are making a place to come and transform, to laugh, to grow, to hear great music, to see wonderful plays, to experience transcendent moments, and to bond with fellow VISION members. We are the place to come to transform your life by using these spiritual principles in your daily life. I have to say that the process of moving is one of the top ten stressors of living. One of the symptoms of the type of stress moving brings up in us is that it magnifies us. By that, I mean that the highest aspects of our being goes higher and the lowest aspects of our being goes lower. So, moving tends to bring out the best and the worst in our tendencies. Take that and couple it with our coping behaviors when stress goes up and we have an ideal environment to practice the principles we teach! I know for myself that when change comes up, I want to know how it comes out, and in my need to know, I exercise control as a coping mechanism over the change itself. What are the coping mechanisms you use? Some of us withdraw, some of us avoid, some of us control, some of us get angry. We all have some habit behavior we use when the stress of change invades our personal space. I would invite you to look at the habit behavior you express when stress invades your space. What do you do? Who or what do you blame? What do you use to deflect the stress? How do you cope with the change? All change is a call for us to see our world as bigger, more beautiful, more expansive, more supportive than ever before. We are called to do our work. We are not victims of our circumstances, our jobs, our government, our family or anything else at the physical level. We are free to experience the joy of being alive, and the simple pleasures of life are the living of it.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Community Building Exercise!

Want to build community? Move a church. I mean it, really. The members of VISION: A Center for Spiritual Living did the most amazing job of moving the center. There were people involved in all aspects, all phases of the move, all along the way. People came out and volunteered time, talent, treasure, and so much more. Our members are incredible resources of knowledge about fundraising, about construction, engineering, electricity, packing, sound, lighting, you name it, someone is an expert at it. Everyone gave what he or she could and then did more! We are blessed to have the most dedicated, committed members ever! It is a wonderful demonstration of just how strong our community has become over the past six years. The connection between members is important and this move clearly showed the connections run deep. It warms the heart of a minister to know that the community is healthy, strong, thriving and bonded with each other. It's nice to know we created a community that can continue to thrive through a big change like moving which is one of the top ten stressors for people. We are taking the center to the next level and we are taking it with the wisdom that the center is not a building, it's not a location, it's not the minister, it's the community, and at VISION, the community is thriving!!!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Guns, Guns, Everywhere Guns

So, I was thinking...what is it with the paranoid rantings of the pro-gun faction saying that any regulation of gun ownership is a blatant violation of the 2nd Amendment? I believe in car ownership and I still recognize that laws regarding car ownership and car operation must be enforced in order to protect all citizens of our country. Responsible ownership must account for something. One cannot buy a car and then drive over people, property and disregard the rules of the road. We have agreed to some common laws regarding responsible car ownership to the safety of all of us. I believe the same applies to gun laws. We must have some comprehensive laws regarding gun ownership for the safety of all of our citizens. That does not make me anti-gun any more than saying we need car laws make me anti-car. Making better laws and creating additional regulations will not eliminate gun violence any more than making more traffic laws eliminate car accidents. But it may make things better, and isn't that what we all want?

Monday, January 7, 2013

That Bothers Me

The other day I noticed that I was annoyed by the car that was driving in front of mine. I looked into the car and noticed that a blue placard, which identifies the driver as disabled, was dangling from the rear view mirror as the occupant of said car was driving. And it annoyed me. I came up with all different reasons, sane reasons, safety reasons, intelligent reasons why I should be annoyed with the dangling blue placard. But the bottom line was, I was annoyed by it. Have you ever been annoyed by things like that, things totally outside of your power to control them? Wow, it's such a waste of energy, yet there I was being all annoyed and up in this driver's business with my condemnation of his placement of his placard. After a few moments of distain, displeasure and judgment, I realized that I was no longer in my business because I was so preoccupied with his business. Talk about futility. Then, it dawned on me. I had been missing some of my meditation times in the month of December. With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season I neglected to set time aside to do my regular meditation and was participating in a hit or miss kind of practice. Well, no wonder I was cranky... I remembered something that Mother Teresa once said about being so busy she better meditate twice as long on that day, I'm paraphrasing here, but that was the gist of it. I do what I do, I get what I get. Miss my regular meditation time and I start being pulled and pushed by the effects of the world. Stay in my regular meditative practice and I go about my day anchored in the Truth. It's that simple and that challenging sometimes.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Equality Means Equal

I read with some interest that Maggie Gallagher, same sex marriage opponent, is ending her syndicated column after seventeen years. While she mentioned all of the reasons why she decided to walk away from her column, newpapers are dinosaurs, print media is a dying breed, I believe she has simply realized that she is not on the winning side of her crusade. Whether or not she has seen the light, it is apparent even to her that she will not "win" this one, that equality will win the day, and that marriage equality is a done deal, state vote by state vote. Freedom wins in the final analysis and the freedom to marry must be a freedom for all Americans. Over the age of consent? Want to marry the person of your dreams? They are over the age of consent also? Go for it. And don't give me any of those slippery slope arguments, either, they are stupid. Heteros cannot marry their dogs or their goats or whatever, so that's not even a conversation I'm going to have with the haters. And the legalization of same sex marriage will not force churches to marry anyone they don't want to marry...the Catholic Church has been denying the sacrament of marriage to various hetero people forever, and they have never been sued because of it. The legal contract of marriage issued by the government should not be dictated by religious beliefs but by the laws of the government. The religious sacrament of marriage can be as biased as the particular religious belief wants to be. It gives everyone freedom to marry. In her closing column, Maggie Gallagher admitted that the fight has not been going well. I am reassured by that. The Truth will out, as they say, and in the end the freedom to live a life as well as one can, to fall in love, to marry, to raise children, to love the person one loves must be a freedom accessible to all.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Grateful 2013

Here is an idea whose time has come. I read it on blogs, FB, newspapers (yes, some people actually continue to read real, smelly, finger staining, crinkly, old fashioned newspapers!) and heard it discussed by people near and far. It is, ta-da, the Gratitude Jar! Yeah, that's it. I know, big build up and that's it. Yup, that's it. The Gratitude Jar. Or Gratitude Box, Gratitude Drawer, or Gratitude Can, if you prefer. Get something, anything, in which to deposit little or big pieces of paper. You will have written something on the paper, something you are grateful for that day. Each day. Everyday. For a year. That's it. Simple & easy. Well, simple. Maybe not so easy. I know I fall into old habits easily and some of the old habits are all about complaining and complaining is not easy to do when we are busy being grateful for things. See how that works? Brain training. I find it next to impossible to complain and be grateful at the same time. So, I received a beautiful wooden box from my eldest son for Christmas. It is made to keep leaves at a constant temperature and humidity. Think tea leaves or tobacco leaves, if you will, though I don't know why anyone would want to think tobacco. This is my Gratitude Box for 2013. It will hold leaves of a different sort. Leaves of paper, items of gratitude, memories to be stored and opened on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2013, so I can look back over a year of blessings. Beats the hell out of making more New Year's Resolutions that don't work! : )