Photo Fest again - Thanksgiving with family

More on my Credo

I was reading "The Story of Unity" by James Dillet Freeman and this came flowing out into my notebook.

God is in you. God is in me. Our true nature is God. You can never be separated from God. No one can. When it seems that a separation has taken place, it is like; not listening to your parents, tuning them out. We tune out God. We take on a will of our own, sometimes called ego. But disconnection from God (or your parents for that matter) will always feel unhappy. Comes in the form of depression or stress. Does that sound like a common complaint of our culture?
My solution is to tune back into God.
"How?" you ask.
BY going into the Stillness of Now. Some call it meditation or wordless prayer. Be still and know God.(a paraphrase of Psalm 46:10) Give up thought. (Eckhart Tolle) Even for a little while.For in that stillness is the source of wisdom. Anyone, in partnership with God, has wisdom.
Religion may catch up with Science soon and declare that all life is interconnected. Family. That's all life: birds, animals, fish, trees, cacti, insects. Mosquitos?
For now, ponder the fact that God is in you. Your true self is GOd. Stop the thought stream in your mind and be still. Know God.

My Unity Credo Seminar Answers

Photo is of the fountain in the garden of the Unity of the Huachucas.

I know what I know and I don't need to know why, means the person has faith in their beliefs.

My beliefs are based on modern writings rather than the bible. Some of my favorite authors in this field are: Wayne Dyer, Deepok Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, Mike Dooley, Neale Donald Walsch...
For me, God is Divine Presence or Divine Spirit.

and

Humans are an expression of God's creative spirit; with an evolving free-will, subject to domination of mind's ego-fears, but capable of enlightenment by allowing the consciousness of our true nature of oneness with Divine Presence.

Prayer is a communion of our hearts to align with Divine Presence - holding the light of healing and goodness in focus, especially when praying for others.

Sin is error and unhappiness. It is ego-based self-interest actions.

'The Christ' is the embodiment of enlightened consciousness.

Redemption or salvation is the act of being brought back into oneness with Spirit.

Grace is an ease of being, a peacefulness way of action.

I become still, focus on my breathing and say a mantra like: Breath in life. Breath out love. Heal. Prosper. Bless.

Putting "There is no evil" (the bumper sticker) into a positive statement = "It's all good" makes sense to me because our lives in physical form is a becoming, a learning, so that everything that happens in that life guides us to union with All That Is.

"Everything that happens, happens for a reason" is one aspect of the Law of Attraction. God works through all actions for a wider application than we can see.

I believe that my higher self observes my life in form as it is happening. This observer tests my ideas until they either drop away or become my beliefs.
Divine Order is Spiritual Law. For example; seed + soil + water + light = new life.

Since all Life is one and Divine Spirit fills everything, to me, 'meeting God' means bringing my consciousness in touch with the divine or sacred and can be done at anytime and will be done when we leave this life form behind.
I have come to the beliefs I have now through a slowly intensifying study of spiritual writings, poems, philosophy & attendance at religious centers like Unity and Science of Mind. For me churches are social places and dogma is to be questioned.

10 description words for God: Love, Life, Health, Goodness, Happiness, Beauty, Truth, Abundance, Empathy, All.

The form of good for which there is no opposite is Life.

For me, prayer works. Absolutely.

For me the Bible is a collection of essays, poem songs, stories and lessons. I like more of a cohesiveness in my reading. Not to say that individual passages aren't moving or wise, but for me, it needs a deep editing and the name 'Holy' removed.

When I want to experience the Stillness that is Divine Presence I try to become totally absorbed in the moment.

Trail ride photos

A Cat's Change of Life

Early one morning, Tucson's eastbound traffic was slow through the busy intersection even when the light was green. In the northbound lanes, I saw a cat. It was running in a crouched position, weaving between the cars and trucks. I pulled the car over just past the intersection.

I jumped out, ran into the intersection, and tried to herd the cat toward the curb. I was murmuring,"It's all right, baby. Let me help you. Stop running honey. I'm just going to help you," and amazingly, she did. We were still in the road. I reached down and scooped her up. I grasped her back feet with my left hand and wrapped my whole right arm around her. I hurried back to my car. The whole thing hadn't taken any longer than the time it takes for the light to change.

The cat was a beautiful, mature, adult female Himalayan. She sat shaking beside me. I petted her head and spoke calmly to her as I drove off. I would have liked to keep her myself but I had a dog and he was all I could handle. Besides, someone out there already loved this beautiful cat. Except for her fear, she was in good shape.

I thought about the animal shelter, but they weren't open yet. Then I remembered my friend Sharron who lives a block from the SPCA shelter. I decided to see if she would be willing to take the cat off my hands and take her to the shelter when it opened. By the time I got to her house the cat had stopped shaking and Sharron said she'd take her.

Ididn't see Sharron for a couple of months. After we caught up on our news, I started thanking her for taking the cat to the shelter that day. She told me, "As it turned out, I didn't take the cat to the shelter. That weekend I was going to my Mother's in New Mexico ( a 300 mile drive) to surprise her on her eighty-second birthday. I decided to give her the pretty cat as a birthday gift. When I got there I carried the cat into the house, when mom reached out to hold her, the cat leaped to the floor and scurried under the sofa. Mom didn't see the cat for weeks. She named her Tiffany, talked to her, put out food, cleaned her litter box, but the cat didn't show herself until one day when Mom was knitting, she came out, jumped up on the sofa, and curled up on an afghan. She'd finally recovered from her change of life."

"Change of life is right," I agreed. "I don't know how many she's had, but we witnessed her transition into this one, didn't we?'