Paradise by Wonderlane

When I began my spiritual journey, the first quality in others that I was attracted to was serenity. I didn’t know that I was attracted to the quality of serenity. Instead I was attracted to serene people. I was going to AA and one of the strengths that you are taught in 12 step meetings was to learn how to help others.

The jobs that a beginner can volunteer for include setting up the meetings and helping clean the rooms after the meeting. For the beginner it can be a humbling experience to begin learning the true lesson of anonymity which is to do something without taking credit or bragging about what was done.

The meetings that I volunteered for were overseen by this man that was so calm and peaceful that I knew I wanted whatever he had. Finally one night I asked how he had gotten whatever he had. It was hard for him to define “it”. But he recommended a little pamphlet about serenity. The booklet taught me two major lessons.

The first lesson was the story of the man in the desert with the whirling dervishes. Someone came up to the man and asked him what he did about the whirling dervishes and he said that he just let them whirl. What a concept! I was beginning to be introduced to detachment and letting it go and change what you can and let the rest go.

The second lesson I learned from the booklet was an illustration that contained an explanation of serenity as picturing a swan beautifully gliding on the surface of the water. But under the water, the swan was paddling furiously in order to go forward. With my thinking at the time, I thought that this seemed dishonest. Such was the power of my brain to distort everything I experienced.

I Am a Wave by Hamed Saber

“Every human being has been brought into the world according to the will of God. And God created us in such a way that every human being can either save his own soul or destroy it. Man’s task in life is to save his soul. In order to save our souls, we must live according to the ways of God, and in order to live according to the ways of God, we must renounce the sensual pleasures of life; we must labor, suffer and be kind and humble.”        Leo Tolstoy

The Changemaker Library recommends the following books to use for examination of Spiritual Direction.

1.  Barefoot on Holy Ground: Twelve Lessons In Spiritual Craftsmanship

Gloria Karpinski

ISBN 0-345-43509-5

Amazon link

“A disciple is someone who recognizes, commits to, and is obedient to the promptings of his or her inner spiritual imperative and chooses to bring that consciousness into every aspect of life. Disciplines are responsible for themselves, knowing they are always in the process of growing and choosing to shape their personalities to serve their spiritual intentions. Disciples tend to be open, flexible, and teachable, inclusive in their worldview and dedicated to participating in the healing of planetary challenges.”

“Disciples are found everywhere and are identified by their being, not necessarily by their doing. Disciples have matured in consciousness from “saving the world” into serving the world.”

2.  Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-Discovery

Marsha Sinetar

ISBN 0-8091-2773-3

Amazon link

“My bias is this: ordinary, everyday people can and do become whole. They can and do live in ways that express their highest and most cherished values—values which also happen to be those most prized universally and collectively throughout human history. People who become whole are the ones who find completeness by consciously integrating inner and outer realities. This is a book about such persons, and about the way in which they manage to merge their inner truths with the demands of everyday living. It is for them, and for all who long for their own wholeness, that this book is written and dedicated.”

Boat Wake by Freewine

“All the maps tell us that on the path to authentic selfhood, we must remain for a time in the dark night of the soul, in the winter of our discontent, until we reach the very bottom of despair. Only then do we discover that the seeds of renewal are blindly pushing up through the fertile loam toward the yet eclipsed sun. In past times theologians, philosophers, and spiritual pilgrims spoke about this part of the journey as being crucified, dead, and buried, losing their ego, being lost in the wasteland or a slough of despair, descending into hell, being consumed by hungry ghosts,being in the belly of the beast, doing battle with dragons, encountering demons. Nowadays we strip it of poetry and give it clinical names: stress–depression–burnout. And, predictably, having renamed the phenomenon, we have created a new class of professionals—stress managers, therapists, and burnout consultants—who destroy the spiritual significance it once had.”

“When we arrive at the dark pit of despair, we have reached the low point in the spiritual journey….Despair is the grave from which we may be born again.”    Sam Keen

“The longest journey is the journey inward, for he who has chosen his destiny has started upon his quest for the source of his being.” Dag Hammarsjkold

“When fog prevents a small-boat sailor from seeing the buoy marking the course he wants, he turns his boat rapidly in small circles, knowing that the waves he makes will rock the buoy in the vicinity. Then he stops, listens and repeats the procedure until he hears the buoy clang. By making waves, he finds where his course lies…Often the price of finding these guides is a willingness to take a few risks, to “make a few waves”. A boat that stays in the harbor never encounters danger—but is also never gets anywhere.”     Richard Armstrong

Dark Night of Our Soul Links:

1.  Definition of dark night of the soul-Wikipedia

2.  Saint John of the Cross wrote Dark Night of the Soul. it is available at Google Books.

From Google Books-

“There comes to all souls, at least once in life, a severe test. It is known as the Dark Night of the Soul. It is when we are beleaguered by darkness: spiritual and mental and where no hope seems to be near and everything we try to do is thwarted. It is where the soul is forced to persist and enter into the glorious Golden Dawn of Illumination and kinship with God, or relax into the dull slumber of a mediocre physical existence. You cannot avoid it. If this test hasn’t already come in your life-it will. How you deal with it is as important as life itself. This book, written by a high initiate, St. John, will be your counsel and guide.”

3.  The Dark Night and clinical depression

4.  Dark Night of the Soul–The Mystic. org

I don’t do book reviews. Instead, I give the book title, the author, the ISBN number and a link to Amazon to buy it. I also include excerpts from the book chosen so that a reader can decide if this book is a good match for him/her.

The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for Living Your Best Life

Marianne Williamson

ISBN 0-06061-611-7

Amazon link

One of the best writers about A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson’s newest books is titled The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life. It is for sale here.

According to the author, A Course in Miracles, is a “self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy”. In this new book, she advocates her readers to begin a thorough plan of change from the inside out.

The main learning from Course is that there are only two emotions: love or fear. She advocates that love can transform anyone.

The ten bridges of transformation that we can experience are:

1) From forgetting who we are to remembering who we are,

2) From negative thinking to positive love,

3) From anxiety to atonement,

4) From asking God to change the world to praying that He changes us,

5) From living in the past and future to living in the present,

6) From focus on guilt to focus on innocence,

7) From separation to relationship,

From spiritual death to rebirth,

9) From your plan to God’s plan,

(10) From who we were to who we are becoming.

One of her more powerful suggestions is that wherever we find ourselves—that is where we should be. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Other books by Marianne Williamson:

Letting Go and Becoming

A Return to Love

Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and Making Miracles

Waiting for God as defined by several bloggers will be this week’s theme here at Changemaker. God is our partner in reinventing ourselves because He gives us a clean slate everyday to start over and recreate our life.

(1)  From allaboutprayer.org, the author reminds us during this times of waiting for God’s answers:

“As you are waiting for God, He strengthens you. “But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).”

“What does it mean to be blessed by God while we wait on Him? As we wait on God and His timing, He can accomplish so much in our hearts. Often we find new purpose in life, receive answers to prayer, see God work, increase our faith, and most often we see God’s perfect plan fulfilled in our situation. Remember, waiting is not wasted time!”

(2)  foundationsforfreedom.net reminds us that these waiting periods can include these three steps: trust–turning to God rather than from Him; rejection–turning away from other empty resources; and pray–pray only for God’s will for our life and the power to carry His will out (12 steps of recovery).

(3)  Jon in stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com offers three stories to complete his understanding of waiting for God: (a) the silent bush–Moses explored the burning bush (Exodus 3); (b) the great goat parade–Genesis 43–“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”; and (c) “After Elijah goes up to heaven and Elisha takes up his mantle he’s forced with a decision. He can sit and pray and wait or he can strike out on his own campaign for God. Here’s what happens in 2 Kings 2: He (Elisha) picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. I love that. He didn’t test the waters with his toe, he parted them. He basically said, “God if you’re down, let’s do this thing.” And then he did it.”b

I first want to begin by reposting about my spiritual experience–”The Moment That Changed My Life”.

“Each life has defining moments. The moment that changed my life happened in a home for alcoholic women in 1976. I was in a discussion with Lois, another alcoholic from Brooklyn, and she was talking about her life. Midway through her talk, I felt intense warmth toward her and compassion flowed through me. The miracle was that I had had a very sheltered life and she had had a very tough life, but in that moment we were sisters and kindred spirits.”

“When I got up and walked outside, everything was different—trees, cars, the street—I saw everything with new eyes. It took me much searching to find out what had happened to me. In a book by William James entitled The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), I found that I had had a radical conversion.”

“Did I answer a calling? I don’t know what happened to me except I knew that God had given me that compassion and love that I felt that day. I know that someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an argument.”

“From that day until today, I have tried to accept the guidance that God gives me and it has been the most amazing journey. I don’t believe that God does more for me now than He did before that day. The difference is that I now can see the daily miracles. “Once I was blind and now I see.””

Some of the lives I’ve visited over the years and been interested to continue to visit are:

(1) Kathy Wilson at www.under-one-roof.net. I have been visiting her site since 2002. She offers life coaching, website solutions, vibrational healing and workshops, classes and teleseminars. She lives in Gig Harbor, Washington. I learned from her that a website can be a collection of interests.

(2) Gordon Atkinson at www.reallivepreacher.com. For several years I didn’t know who he was but I knew I liked his writing and his life. He and I also have experienced depression—one of God’s great gifts to those of us who were asleep. Depression does get your attention. He is a real live preacher in San Antonio, Texas. Jeanene, his wife, sells beautiful one-of-a-kind jewelry at gracefull things.com.

(3) Rob Waller at www.mindandsoul.info. He explores Christian spirituality and mental health not only on his blog but also in his professional life. He is a doctor of psychiatry who has managed to stay a real person. He works in Bradford, England. We share a similar interest in spirituality aiding mental health.

(4) Don Iannone at http://poeticalchemist.wordpress.com/. Don Iannone is an organizational change agent and innovation specialist with over 28 years experience in the economic development and higher education fields. He works at Richmond Heights, Ohio and has a great love for Cleveland, Ohio and poetry. I believe the only constant in life is change. He also has many spiritual links you may want to explore.

(5) Steve F. at www.ragarambler.blogspot.com. He works in the non-profit field. His profile includes “late-40-something former telecom corporate data/finance geek and former seminary student. Once I was on the road to ordained ministry; now I’m on the road to finding what else God has planned. A “friend of Bill” since December 1990, a storyteller, sci-fi fan, a former Catholic (and most-valuable-altar-boy), I’m now residing somewhere on the outskirts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) but I’m really looking for a Meadow place that I can call “home” ”. He works in Chicago, Illinois. He and I are both “friends of Bill” and on the road to find what God has planned for us.

(6) Roldan Smith’s first post—“Where the Elephant Wants to Go” resonates one of my favorite themes—Let Go and Let God. I like the elephant in the equation to remind to remember it is much bigger than I am—God and the elephant. His blog is on-common-ground.com and is refreshingly diverse. Another great post of his is “Let Go and Let G…g” in which he shares this profound truth (in his words)–”What I learned most profoundly was the power of ALLOWING.  It was when I let go of resistance to what what was (is) in my life and the fears of what I thought I wanted and or needed from God.  It was when I ALLOWED the true essence of myself to come forth in it’s own way, that the flood gates of all that is pure and perfect were (are) able to come through.  Not TO, but THROUGH me.”

(7)  I love spiritual-experiences.com. On the home page, the site’s direction is explained. “Spiritual Experiences is your source for spiritual and religious experiences, the study of spirituality, religion, enlightenment and teachers. We are interested in stories from readers like you, if you have experienced any kind of inner awakening, personal development, growth or journey, if you had a life transforming realization, an experience of transcendence, an inspiring story or if you have a gift on matters of spirituality, teachings and counseling, please submit it! If you want to have your own profile page, please sign up, it’s free!” I have loved everything I have read there.