Prosperity Sunday 5 of 12

          Since this is Prosperity Sunday #5, let’s talk about your assets.

What, in your opinion, is your most important asset?

I’ll let ruminate on that question as we review the first four chapters of SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS, by Eric Butterworth.

Our first chapter was about substance, that invisible, universally present creative stuff that, when mixed with your thoughts, initiates a creative, substantive, chain-reaction that produces according to the belief/ the emotion/ the expectation which your thought carries. As an aside, you may not yet believe/ deeply feel/ expect something “good” to be true for you in your life, but I would say that if you believe, feel, expect as if it were true… that this is an ‘up-leveling’ of your thoughts and that your resultant experience is also “up-leveled.”

Chapter two was YOUR FORTUNE BEGINS WITH YOU and the point of that chapter is that there is a creative law at work which we would describe as “Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” The thoughts that you hold in mind are up to you, thus your fortune begins with you!

Chapter three is THE LAW OF VISUALIZATION and its summation is, “Having seen and felt the end you have willed the means to the realization of the end.” We all know the idea that there is a means to every end. Visualizing that end; holding it in your mind… those are the means to the realization of end. Again, your fortune begins with you.

Chapter four was IF YOU CAN BELIEVE and here we see the same theme as the previous three chapters, just said in a different way; (Butterworth), “…you will always receive what you actually expect. So, we hold thoughts in mind, and visualize the end as already being so… and that will produce according to our expectation.”

 If that is so, then I suggest you check your expectation in any and all areas of your life. Where things are not as you would hope they’d be, change your thinking, change your belief (or at least, “be open to the possibility of…”) of the power of the Law of Mind-Action and be grateful that you know that you have the power to be, as Walt Whitman refers to it, not a slave but a ruler of life.

Before we begin this week’s chapter, I ask you again, what is your most important asset?

In the opening paragraph of this week’s chapter, THE GRATEFUL HEART, Butterworth gives us his answer: (page 85, P1) “What is your most important asset? Conditioned as it is to materialistic values, your mind might begin weighing the relative usefulness of things. However, if you carefully search within yourself, you may come to the awareness that your most important asset is the conscious control of your own life. Nothing else can satisfy or fulfill… unless you enjoy the freedom that comes from control of your inner world of mind and emotions.”

Butterworth tells a story about a man who was ill and went to the doctor. The doctor told him he had six months to live, people asked him what will he do with the time he has left? His answer was, “I will do what I have always done; live with a grateful heart one day at a time.” Ten years later when Butterworth is writing is the book, he writes that the man was alive and well. One might say, “Well this man has plenty which to be grateful for. What did he have ten years ago?” To think this way is to miss the whole meaning.

This man lived a controlled life… living with a grateful heart one day at a time. Living with a grateful heart is a conscious choice; it’s taking conscious control of your life; living with a grateful heart is a causative energy.

Remember: the conscious control of this causative energy is your greatest asset.

Butterworth says, “…though normally overlooked, living with a grateful heart is a key element in the process of achieving prosperity.”

Did you hear that? Did you take that in? Living with a grateful heart is a key element in the process of achieving abundance.

Perhaps you’ve thought that God is disturbed if you don’t return thanks. If “God is Love’” then it is God’s nature to Love and (possible blasphemy waning) God doesn’t (dare I say “can’t” when we’re talking about “The Almighty? J) do anything other than extend love. Thus God can do only one thing where you are concerned, extend love to you.

Butterworth (page 87) “You are not obligated to thank God for your life, for your job, for your prosperity. However, giving thanks is an important state of your consciousness that keeps you in awareness of oneness with divine flow. When you understand this, you see that a grateful heart does not need something to be grateful for… it simply flows forth from within and becomes a causative energy.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18-19 Paul is counseling the people to, “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Please do not misunderstand this. The counsel is not, “Be thankful for all circumstances,” but, “be thankful in all circumstances.” These are two very different suggestions.

Paul is not suggesting we be thankful for a car that doesn’t run, or for not having warm clothing for the winter, or the fact that you don’t a thin dime, a plug nickel, or two cents to rub together. Here’s what it’s about, plain and simple: be thankful for the awareness of the ever-presence of substance.

Now here we are, connected right back to chapter one and ever-present creative substance.

Knowing this and knowing that you can choose to be aware of the ever-presence of substance (i.e. be grateful) is your most important asset because now you know you have conscious control over your own life!

Let me give you a way to extend gratitude on a day-to-day basis that activates the ever-present substance and initiates the process of achieving abundance: bless everything.

(pages 92-93) “The power of blessing is not reserved for the holy places, or for the specially ordained persons. It is an act of tremendous power that can be used by anyone. …to bless… means “to confer prosperity upon.” You are always projecting some kind of thought toward everything you have or hold. Sometimes it is negative, limiting, restrictive. But you can bless your home, your job, or your money supply, and thus confer a consciousness of abundance upon them. It is not something you do to these things. Rather, it is a correction of the mentality [you hold]. And the law is that things become to you, that which you see them as being.”

Take a moment right now engage in the experience of gratitude, just as we did earlier in our meditation. Close your eyes and just feel grateful. Don’t cast about for something or another to be grateful for, just feel gratitude. This is an exercise in feeling causal energy. Just feel grateful. Let the spirit of thanksgiving flood your whole being with its healing warmth.

          This week, make a commitment to keep alive your awareness of substance through gratitude in all things. If you are willing, write 10 times each day until our next prosperity Sunday, “Feeling gratitude is a key element in the process of abundance.”

God is Love/ Love is God

Here is the full Text I worked from On Sunday, December 15, 2013

          I want to tell you a story about a woman in a hospital who had a dramatic experience and made a great discovery. This story was shared with me by a minister friend from Texas and he says it’s a true story.

·        The hospital is in a big city and the woman is lying in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, and staring at the ceiling. Soon enough she realizes she’s in the hospital, but she has no memory of how she got there. She has no idea what hospital she’s in or even where it’s located.

·        In a moment of clarity she remembers she was in a horrific automobile accident.

·        Nurse talks to her about her impending surgery. After the accident there was no circulation in her leg and there is the possibility of having the leg amputated in order to save her life.

·        She lies there, watching her whole life pass before her eyes in a split second, and she wonders what went wrong.

·        In her anguish and pain during the night, she would cry out about how bad her life was and how bitter she was about the things that had happened to her.

·        Caring nurse – held her hand – looked into her eyes – “What in the world has made your life so bad? Life was not meant for sorrow; it was meant for joy. Life is made for love and happiness.”

·        “Why are you alone? Where is your husband? You have talked about him with bitterness and hate. What has happened in your life that makes you so bitter?”

·        Seeing love in eyes, she cries uncontrollably. All the stored up grief and pain was just pouring out of her.

·        I’m going home to pray for you. Share with me so I can help you in prayer.

o       Married to a beast of a man

o       All her dreams as a little girl vanished

o       Nothing turned out right

o       Just gone to husband’s attorney (Divorce)

o       Biter about the lies that hade been told about her

o       Behind the wheel in a blind rage/ hate, she could not see and drove faster and faster until she lost control of the car

·        Lying in that bed, realized it was not car but her life & her love over which she had lost control.

·        Seeing the love in nurse’s eyes and feeling her caring she realized that no one outside herself could take her love away, that she had a choice.

·        Live life out of choice rather than anything else

·        She and the nurse prayed

·        She dreamed a “Salvation Army” type band singing this version of AT THE CROSS:

·        "At the Cross, at the Cross, where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It is there by faith I receive my sight,

And now I am happy all the day."

·        When she awoke she kept repeating, “Happy, happy, happy. Oh God, I want and choose to be happy.”

·        Think about her condition: great pain – may lose leg – may not survive… and she was praying or happiness!

·        In that moment her soul sought God – not a doctor, pain killer, or physical aide.

·        All have been through difficulty (maybe in it now) and it brings us to the realization that life is love and the quality of our lives is dependent on how much love we “have inside.” (and are aware of and extend to other people and circumstances and conditions in our lives) It’s not just about other people loving us.

·        Love is all around us and what we do is fight off acknowledging it, and expressing it. Love is God; God is love. There is no love to be found; it is ever-present and only known through its expression.

·        If we didn’t spend so much time battling against receiving/accepting Love being offered to us, and giving Love to those who cry out for it, we’d recognize we are awash in endless unconditional Love.

·        In that moment this young woman said, "God, I make the choice for love, and happiness. No one can take love away from me. I am happy with what I have right now."

·        What a statement for this woman, at this time, to make!

·        An interesting thing then happened. When life surges through you, changes happen. When the doctors came in, they had that surprised look on their faces. One doctor said, "We don't understand this, but we do not think it will be necessary to amputate your leg. It looks as if circulation has returned."

·        She just said, "Thank You, God. With everything inside of me, thank You God. I am happy!"

·        Circulation of love and happiness heals the hard and painful parts of our lives.

·        She, in that moment, was infilled by God with overflowing love and gratitude—so much so that it flowed out to all those around her.

·        They could feel a positive change of energy coming from her.

·        She would lie in bed, no pain killers, instead sing songs—songs she remembered and songs she made-up.

·        Her family, and her husband who was divorcing her, came to visit her and just sat at her bedside wondering what happened to her. Her husband, too, cried uncontrollably, seeing the change in her, created a change in him.

·        People often change because they see something in you that they want.

·        Look around at people and see what they express that you want to express.

·        Good example or horrible warning – everyone has something to offer to us.

·        It has been many years since this occurred. Let me tell you what happened during those years. This woman became vitally healthy – healthier than she ever was before, even in her younger years.

·        Their marriage really started for the first time after she left the hospital. Her husband recommitted his life to God.

·        In I John we read God is love. God is Love and Love is God. Committing yourself to God is not committing yourself to religion. Committing yourself to God is committing yourself to extending love and seeing with love.

·        When you are working with Love you are working with God.

·        This is an abundance story. Withholding the circulation of love and happiness withers your life; circulation of love and happiness expands your life.

·        Life is a choice

·        I’ll close by asking, “What life do you choose for yourself?”

·        Whatever you’d like your life to be, choose to live it.

·        Thank you for being here today.

·        God bless you.

If time permits, show video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk (West Jet Christmas Miracle)

Staying Afloat

This is the text of the talk I gave on Sunday, December 8, 2013       

Jane has been singing, “Mary’s Boy Child” on and off for the past several days. One of the lyrics is, “…and man will live forevermore because of Christmas day.”

Do you believe you will find immortal life after you die?

Only after you die?

What about immortal life in the present?

If you are uncertain I remind you, again, that we are made in the image and after the likeness of God (Gen 1:26), therefore immortal life is here and now in this present moment.

On page 14 of the ATOM SMASHING POWER OF MIND, Charles Fillmore writes, “When we finally understand the facts of life and rid our minds of the delusion that we shall find immortal life after we die, then we shall seek more diligently to awaken the spiritual man (Christ consciousness/ awareness of God) within us and strengthen and build up the spiritual domain of our being...”

One of the many ideas in this statement that I want to key on today is diligence.

I think you’ll be interested to hear about Nelson and Dora Coila, Uros natives who live on an island in Lake Titicaca, Peru.

The Uros people live in a unique way on the lake. They all live on islands, but they are not islands of solid rock as you might assume.

Each island is made of reeds!

 The Coila’s live on an island they made themselves! A tiny island made of reeds!

I found a story about them in an online LDS magazine, Ensign, the article is written by Adam C. Olson.

Olson says their island floats about 4 feet above the water and has about 10 buildings on it. The water in the lake is about 50 degrees, so it’s no picnic getting wet, or having the island sink. Another thing you need to know is, “…the elements continually threaten to literally disintegrate their island home.”

What does this have to do with diligence?

What they are doing in the physical realm is a metaphor for what we all need to do in our spiritual awareness.

Physically speaking, their island homes are made completely of the Totara reed. The reed grows in the shallows along the lake and is used many ways. The root can be eaten and the husk is medicinal, Olson says. And then, the reed itself is used in construction of the islands, the dwellings, their traditional boats, and watchtowers. Olson says they even make trash baskets from the reed.

Now, here’s the thing: I mentioned the elements a minute ago.  The sun wreaks havoc on the reeds during the dry season. The rain does the same during the rainy season, and of course the lake is always decomposing the reeds under water. In order to stay afloat, Olson says that the Coila’s have to put down a new top layer of reeds every 10 - 15 days!

That takes diligence. Procrastination is a very present “enemy.” Rebuild a portion of your foundation every 10 to 15 days or risk weak spots appearing.

Olson writes, “Procrastination, however, increases the risk of a family member putting a foot through a weak spot and ending up in cold water. (Remember the water temp is 50 degrees Fahrenheit) This can be little more that a nuisance for adults, but it’s potentially deadly for little children…”

Diligence makes a difference in the Coila’s life and so does it in ours.

Back to the second half of Mr. Fillmore’s quote, “When we finally understand the facts of life and rid our minds of the delusion that we shall find immortal life after we die, then seek more diligently to awaken the spiritual man (Christ consciousness/ awareness) within us and strengthen and build up the spiritual domain of our being...”

We can take a great lesson from the Uros of Peru. To stay afloat they have to diligently maintain their physical home or they will begin to sink and suffer.

For us to “stay afloat” in maintaining our inner peace amid all the unexpected and inexplicable fluctuations of the world we must be diligent in constantly awakening and maintaining our conscious awareness with the Christ spirit within our mind.

Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.”

Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit…”

Within our mind (and heart), placed there at our spiritual creation by God is what Mr. Fillmore would call our innate Christ perfection. I like to think of this innate Christ perfection, or God-reflection, or “My Son in whom I am well pleased” as our “standard equipment.”  That helps to give me a better grasp on the awareness that its in me, a part of me, non-negotiable and not an option for which I have to pay a cost; it came with me right from the beginning, its standard equipment.

To maintain awareness of this Presence takes diligence.

Be diligent in holding to your innate Christ perfection under all circumstances.

Too often we think or are taught – and I’m responsible for offering you something on a Sunday this way – too often we are counseled to don’t do this and don’t do that, such as don’t be angry, don’t be judgmental, or fearful, or indifferent, or guilt, etc. when the better advice is what to be. Our spiritual journey is not about what we don’t want to be, but about what we do want to be.

The quote I offered last week is pertinent here, too. “If you are in the want of money that’s what you’ll always get… the want of money.” If you’re always wanting not to be something or some way, that’s what you’ll have, the wanting not to be angry, guilty, judgmental, feeling hurt, etc.

On the spiritual journey be what you want to be. The statement is still accurate when said this way, “If you’re always being peaceful, that’s what you’ll have; peace.”

Nelson Coila says, “Sometimes we get suffocated by the daily routine of working, cooking, and so forth. When we forget God, things get complicated. There are more problems and things fall apart.”

When things get complicated and fall apart, remember God, or better yet be diligent in holding to you innate Christ perfection and stay afloat.

Prosperity Sunday 4 of 12

This is the text of the talk I gave on Sunday, December 1, 2013

Today is Prosperity Sunday number four of twelve. We are examining the book SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS: The principles and Process of True Prosperity by Eric Butterworth. This month’s chapter is titled, “If You Can Believe.”

In Mark 9:23 these words are attributed to Jesus, “…All things are possible to the one who believes.”

What do you think Jesus meant by “one who believes?”

What does it mean to you to believe?

Does it mean, “I believe in God?” OK, what does God mean to you? What do you believe? These are questions that are well worth thinking about and after you’ve answered them for yourself, think about your answers. Challenge yourself… ask yourself, “Why is this my answer? Why do I believe this?”

Now, hopefully I’ll “upset the applecart” when I suggest to you that belief isn’t a believing “in something” something but an “openness to” something.

We likely have been trained to view “believing in God” as believing in a “super-force (or Super-person) out there to whom we ask give to us; take away; prevent.

Butterworth write on page 68, (SLIDE) “God is not the Grand Man of the heavens, a great purser of accounts and distributer of divine substance. God is the transcendent whole of things of which you are [operating as] an individualized part.”

Butterworth goes on to say, “The whole Universe of “God Substance” is centered in you. There is nothing you can do to add to that or take away from it.”

Now maybe we’ve thought, or think, “The whole universe of God-substance was centered in Jesus, but it isn’t in me.”  Remember that Jesus said in John 14:12, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Just so you know, all this things that I do you can do too. In fact, you can do even more than you’ve seen me do!” and then there’s that little tag line, “if you believe.”

The out-picturing of our believing is not the result of magic. The out-picturing of our believing is not the result of a miracle. The out-picturing of our believing is not the result having done, “all the right things,” it’s the result of believing (or we could say faith)

Believing is the “openness to” something.

When you say you believe in something you are really saying, “I’m open to it.” And the deeper we believe the more open we are to it.

In the sound room we have a number of rheostats that operate banks of light.

Michelle, would you gently lower all the rheostats, please? If you close down the rheostat the light decreases. On the other had if you raise up the rheostats, the light increases. Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle, would you show us the next slide, please? (SLIDE is V=I x R)

Does anyone recognize this equation? This is Ohm’s law and you use it to do circuit analysis. It’s called Ohm’s law because Mr. Ohm figured it out. When you figure out something like this, you get to name it after yourself. After you leave here today you are going to be able to do your own circuit analysis for your life using not Ohm’s law, but “your” law. In other words you just insert your own name. You’ll see what I mean.

Next slide, please. Here we see (V=I x R)

V=voltage; I=current; and R=resistance. In order to know the voltage present we multiply the current times the resistance. Otherwise stated, voltage is the result of current working through resistance. Let’s solve a couple of simple equations.

(SLIDE) What voltage is present if you have 120 amps of current and 2 ohm’s of resistance? 240 volts.

(SLIDE) What voltage is present if you have 120 amps of current working through .10 ohms of resistance. 12 volts.

Now let’s look at this metaphysically. (Slide) (V=I x R )

V=the experience of your life. I=the current of God. R=the belief (openness) resident in your consciousness. Now we have: Experience of our Life = God x (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

          The experience of your life is equal to the current of God working through you personal openness.

          In “Circuit Analysis” of your life, God is a constant. The current of God never changes. The experience of our life is relative to the resistance we put forth, or to the openness we have, to the current of God.

Experience of our Life = God (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

The question we want to explore when we think our life isn’t all it could be is, “How many me’s of resistance are present for God to work through?

For myself I could think of it this way, “How many Brad’s of resistance are present in my consciousness to the open flow of the current of God?”

 (Brad’s Law)

Experience of my Life = God (working thru) Brad.

You can fill in you name in the equation and make this your law instead of Ohm’s law.

Butterworth writes on page 72,  “The most widespread disease of our time may well be “I-can’t-itis.” It is contracted by many of us early in life from our elders. Society has made a song of it that has neither rhyme nor reason, and it may be heard everywhere:

I can’t because I am poor.

I can’t because I am sick.

I can’t because I do not have the ability.

I can’t because there is no opportunity.

I can’t because I am too old.

I can’t… I can’t… I can’t.

Experience of our Life = God (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

I experience poorness/ sickness/ no ability/ no opportunity, etc because the creative current of God is working through the openness in my consciousness to the belief that “I am poor, I am sick, I have no ability, I have no opportunity, etc.” (If you look at this closely you’ll see that we put effect first and call it cause.)

It may have been the Buddha that said, “If you keep saying, “I want more money,” that’s exactly what you’ll have… the wanting of more money.”

(Butterworth, Page 77) “The [belief] required to demonstrate prosperity is not simply a pious pronouncement, it is expectancy. You do not receive what you want; you do not receive what you pray for, not even what you say you [believe] in. What you will always receive is what you actually expect.”

That’s why we need to take a self-assessment once in a while and “inspect for what we expect.”

Now, it is important for you to remember that despite what your consciousness may be, you can grow, you can improve, you can be prosperous, you can succeed, if you believe. When you say yes to the creative flow within you, you begin to experience I-am-positive-I-can attitudes which illuminate the powers and skills needed to accomplish. When you believe you can do it, the how-to-do-it develops.

It’s not the other way around – “When I see how it can be done, I will believe I can do it.”

No miracles are required. You are a rich and creative spiritual being. You can never be less than this. You may frustrate your potential. You may identify with that which is less than you can be. Within you now, and always, is the unborn possibility of a limitless experience of inner stability and outer treasure. You posses the privilege of giving birth to it and you will, if you can believe.

Thank you for being here today. God bless you.

(If you are participating transforming your abundance experience, your assignment is to write the following 10 times each day: “Abundance = the current of God moving through my belief.”)

Positive Spiritual Thinking

I gave this talk five days after my sister passed unexpectedly. I inadvertently never posted it after delivering it July 7, 2013:

          This is a picture of my sister Diane. She died unexpectedly on Tuesday morning.

There is an old story about a king. He had a beautiful ring and he had three sons. Each son wanted the ring. When the king died, he left three rings for his sons with a note. The note said, "My dear sons, one of these rings is real and two are fake. The way you will know who has the real ring is that the son with the real ring will always be kind and generous to all people." Each of the three spent the rest of their lives proving they had the real ring.

My sister Diane must have had one of those rings because she was kind and generous.

Diane was not religious. She didn’t go to church.  She didn’t engage in conversations about spirit.  In fact, I’m not sure I ever heard her utter the word, God, yet she lived a life of kindness, acceptance, and generosity.  People were attracted to Diane because of the way she lived.

It is the same with religion. We can go throughout the community and talk a good game about Unity, but that doesn't change anyone… and talking a good game certainly doesn't change us. What changes us is when we live it-- when we become our spiritual path.  Then others – kids, grandkids… anyone else - look at us and they see there is something in us they would like to have.

Living an attractive life begins with a positive lifestyle, with a

positive mind, with positive thoughts. There is not one person here this morning who would not say they are a positive thinker. Every person here believes they are positive. But are you positive all the time? Are you filled with a faith, zeal, and an experience of God which gives you the extra power to know God is with you every second of every day?

          I’m not saying that we never have negative feelings or as I am having the week, feelings of sadness and loss.  At the same time I’m having those feelings I am aware of the indelible Presence of God. In my sadness there is a positivity that is staunchly present.

          There is a humorous story told about being positive. It involves two men named Sam and Jed.

          Sam and Jed determined they could become wealthy by hunting wolves.

          So, they started out, because in their part of the country a live wolf was worth a $5,000 bounty. They went out and searched for wolves day and night. After a few weeks they still hadn’t seen one wolf.

          Then one night they fell asleep and when Sam woke up he noticed they were surrounded by about 50 snarling wolves with flaming eyes and bared teeth.

          Sam gently nudged his friend and excitedly says, "Jed, wake up! We're rich!"

          That is a funny story, but it is the type of positive attitude I want us to have even when things don't look good to every one of your five senses; to know that, with God, somehow, someway, that everything is alright, or that this (whatever it is) is going to turn out to be a positive. I would like you to have such faith in God that you know; that you know; that you know with God this situation is going to turn around for your betterment.  That you are going to use every situation in your life, the good times, and the bad, to be grateful to God. You are going to have an awareness that God is with you so much that only good can come out of this situation even if it appears in the beginning that only bad can come out of it.

          For instance, there is a story of Ole Evinrude. Evinrude wanted to take ice cream to his girl friend to propose to her. So in a very romantic way, he got some ice cream and he asked her to join him on the shore and they got into his rowboat with the gallon of ice cream. They were going to row over to an island in Oconomowoc Lake, a small lake outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he would serve her ice cream, maybe sing a little bit and then propose. By the time he got to the island the ice cream was all melted. The problem was that it was all melted over the bottom of the boat and all over the girl.

          It is hard to be romantic when you have sticky, homemade ice cream melted all over you. Needless to say, it did not go well; in fact, he never married the girl. But what he did do that day was vowed that he would spend however long it took to make things better.  Ole Evinrude invented the outboard motor so that sometime later on someone could make it to the island with frozen ice cream.

          When your ice cream is melted and when you feel sticky, how is God going to turn it around? You have to take it into prayer and you have to ask and wait to be Divinely inspired. You may have to have courage to act on things that other human beings haven't acted upon before, or the courage to act in a way that those around you aren’t.

When you do, everything is going to turn out alright, or maybe even better than alright; your whole life could change as it did for Ole Evinrude.

          On display at the French Academy of Sciences is a shoemaker's awl. It looks like an ordinary shoemaker's awl, but behind the little awl are both tragedy and victory. It fell one day (early 1800’s) from the shoemaker's table and it put out one eye and damaged the other eye of the shoemaker’s nine year old son; a tragedy. Within weeks the child was blind in both eyes and had to attend a special school for the sightless. At that time, the blind read by using large carved wooden blocks which were clumsy and awkward to handle.  When the shoemaker's son grew up, he devised a new reading system with punched dots on paper. To do this he used the same shoemaker's awl that had blinded him. The man's name was Louis Braille. He used the tragedy with God's help to flip it around into victory. That is the power of God. That is the power we each have.

          And I have faith that each of Diane’s kids and grandkids (and our sisters, Judy and Nancy) will be able to flip the loss and pain they feel into a “victory;” that the darkness the feel becomes a bright light for them because they let themselves grieve instead of stuffing their feelings; because they take a positive memory-path and that they come to remember a life well lived by their mother, grandmother, sister.

          Positive thinking is more than just blind faith. The power of positive thinking is awesome.  When you make your human mind available for the positive God thought, you are less susceptible to depression, depression that sometimes robs the human being of power. You are less susceptible to physical ills. You have a proven power that you can achieve more in your life. You will have greater social success. Optimism is a habit.

I heard that one of Diane’s grandkids stated he was her favorite.  Another objected, saying that she was her favorite.  A few more joined in saying that they thought grandma liked them best. My sister Diane was always loving, present, and optimistic with her grandkids and I believe that’s why each of them though they were her favorite.

I’d like to conclude by reading a story that came to my email inbox just yesterday:

“I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students.

As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there. With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, "Before class is over, I would like to share with all of you a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important."

Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end. It can end at any moment. Perhaps knowing this is God's way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day."

Her eyes beginning to water, but she went on, "So I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice. It doesn't have to be something you see… it could be a scent-perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's house, the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground.

Please look for these things, and cherish them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are "the stuff" of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted. We must make it important to notice them, for at any time..."

The class was completely quiet. We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those things that sometimes we all overlook.

          Take notice of something special you see on your lunch hour today. Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset. Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double-dip ice cream cone. For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do.”

          This is how I will remember my sister Diane. She was kind. She was generous. She took the time to be present and positive with every little thing with her grandchildren… and she was always willing to stop for ice cream, to laugh, or to look at a butterfly.

          She always loved me and for that I am grateful. 

After all, I was her favorite. :o)