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!!!