Bare Necessities

Yesterday Lowell and I went to see his granddaughter who was in the play The Jungle Book.  Her part was as a monkey and elephant.  It is always entertaining and fun to see young children in a play and you can tell they are having fun.  I also think one of the side benefits for the children comes from  learning the lyrics of some of the songs that they sing.  These lyrics will be instilled in them and come to mind when they face challenges.

Yesterday one of the songs that I think they will remember is the song "Bare Necessities".  The first stanza of the lyrics are below.

The Bare Necessities

Phil Harris, Bruce Reitherman

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

Lauren is in the right as a monkey in the photo below.  The play was at North Texas Performing Arts theater.

Mentalist

Last night Lowell and I went to see the amazing talent of David Magee who uses the power of the mind to perform amazing feats.  He is able to predict what people will do in his audience before they know what is going to happen. 

In one instance he had 5 different people pick out colors to illustrate the clothing and hair color of a person.  Individually he had people look at the color markers in a jar and hold in their mind the marker before they picked it out.  Personally I feel that he was sending the message to the person's mind the color he wanted them to pick.  At the end he revealed the colors he had picked and it matched exactly what he had predicted in advance.

NFL legend Terry Bradshaw says,

“My family and I are huge fans of David’s but more importantly he is a great friend. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met! When you meet David or see him perform, you will understand why so many people fall in love with his grace and kindness, as he takes your breath away and absolutely blows your mind!”

I feel that watching a mentalist perform reveals the fantastic potential our mind has to help us out in various situations.  We are mentally linked in ways we are not aware and this connection is more powerful than we realize.

DNA in Our Lives

My sister and I have both had our DNA done through Ancestry.com and it was very interesting to find that we both have inherited different parts of the genetic pool that we share.  We have purchased a kit for my 98 year old mother to see how her DNA differs from ours.

I have been thinking more about how genetics influences more than we realize.  When twins are separated and adopted, it is surprising to find that they are alike in body language and likes/interests. 

One of my favorite fiction authors is Tony Hillerman who wrote a series of books based on the Navajo culture.  The characters were several Navajo cops who solve Navajo crimes but in the process of reading the books the reader learns a lot about Navajo culture and beliefs.  When Tony died in 2008, it seemingly marked the end of these wonderful books.

Then out of the blue Tony's daughter continued writing the books and the series is continued.  Anne Hillerman is just as talented as her dad and she is using the same characters in the original series.  Did she inherit the genetics of her dad in writing?  Or is it her interest in writing that has caused her to have the unique skills of her dad?  You can also say that she was raised in an environment of being an author's daughter.

Genetics plays a part many times in alcoholism and other more negative situations.  The key is to rise above genetics and realize that in the midst of all our physical and emotional DNA, we are spiritual beings who can break the chains of some of the genetics that cause us problems.

Myrtle Fillmore who was the co-founder of Unity is a model of this kind of thinking when she had tuberculosis and was doomed to die.  Her deep belief and affirmation was  " I am a child of God, and therefore I do not inherit sickness".  I believe we each can adopt that thought and affirmation about situations in our lives and live a more abundant and healthy life.

A Temporary Mess

My house is in total disarray.  About a week ago I decided to move my bedroom to what is now  my office and then to move my guest bedroom to another location.  The end result will be good.  I will have a room totally devoted to my scrap booking and hobbies.  Another room will be a guest bedroom and I will have more room for my own bedroom.

Right now the chaos in the house is overwhelming.  I am moving bookcases and dismantling my computer desk.  I will be moving file cabinets, etc.  Today I am having coffee with a mess all around me.  In the back of my mind, I know this is all temporary leading to a good result. 

This is the way our lives are at certain time periods.  The bottom drops out in a life situation and we wonder why everything in our lives seems to be in chaos.  We may go through a divorce which may result in a move.  Or we may make a move in order to have a better job.  We may not know if there is going to be a good end result.  If we keep in mind that "this too shall pass", we can move without panic or stress.

Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something. Ralph Marston

Reflections on Death

Reflections on Death

Last night Joyce Berg who is my daughter's mother-in-law passed away from COPD.  My late husband also passed away from COPD and I know and empathize at what the family went through.  My daughter and son-in-law moved Joyce to Tampa from Springfield, MO last year so they could take care of her during her last year.

I have many memories of Joyce.  She and I would meet up at the elementary school to see Marshall and Becca for grandparent's day.  She picked me up from the airport one time when I was coming to see my daughter.  We would always see each other at special family events including Thanksgiving.  She got me started on using and raising banana peppers.  She loved to grow plants.  

Death always gives each of us pause to think about our lives.  Are we doing what we came here to do?  Are we putting an emphasis on loving others unconditionally?  

We never know how much longer we have to live.  I think we always think we have more time than we do.

In reality we are visitors to this world.  We arrived in our spacesuit (body) ready to learn spiritual lessons and contribute to society.  At some point we will return "home".

It is time for each of us to appreciate our life experience and especially all those who are in our lives.  

Photo below is of Joyce Berg with my great-grandson Brentley taken in 2012.

Blessings,

Ellen

Dealing with Colds in a Spiritual Way

It started out with a cold which went to my throat and before I knew it, I had laryngitis.  When you can't talk, you can think and you are grateful for that.

My illness reminded me of a time in the early 1970's when I was attending Unity of Dallas.  At the time there were 2 ministers.  Dr. Curtis was the senior minister and Marge Kass was the Associate Minister.  I took a lot of classes from Marge and noticed that she was not showing up at church.  Curious I began to try to find out what was wrong with her.  Silence!   I was able to get her phone number and I called her.  She said, "Well, I am just going to tell you flat out that I am sick".  I said what was wrong with just letting people know that you are sick.  She said that in this Unity church no one could connect the words "I am" with sick.  It violated the belief that when you connect the words "I am" with anything negative, it was a wrong belief.  She did not want to be judged by the "thought police" in the church.  Later on I found out that this attitude is termed "absolutism".

I was so surprised.  I knew the logic but I was noticing that when people who knew nothing about Unity principles (visitors) would say I am "sick, broke, not feeling well, etc." people would jump all over them and say "cancel cancel".  The visitors would be extremely surprised because the attitude was not helpful but judgmental.  It felt like they had committed a crime.

 I believe that we should be aware individually of what we are saying but I think people should also be free to express themselves without being judged.  Love uplifts us above the judgmental attitude.  I think it is important for us to accept others even if they don't express the exact phrases we would like to hear.

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.
Wayne Dyer