Hi Everyone,
This week I am thinking about the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and about the freedom and democracy we enjoy in the United States. Also, this week will be the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another. I have been fortunate enough to witness this ritual many times in my life. Sometimes I have been happy with the result and at other times I have not, but, nevertheless, it has taken place and the country has moved forward over and over again. The peaceful ritual is the focus! Monday’s Daily Word lesson was about peace. The affirmation referred to “my peaceful heart.” That is what I can contribute to the country and to the world—a peaceful heart. I truly believe that freedom and peace go together. I believe that until we are all free, no one is free, and that without justice there can be no peace. It appears that recently, parts of our country have been operating on differing sets of facts and that is very unfortunate. Each of you, my dear readers, must decide for yourselves what you believe but there are Truths that we learn in Unity.
Thinking about Truth always brings me to one of our foundational texts in Unity, Lessons in Truth by Dr. H. Emilie Cady. The first chapter is entitled “Bondage or Liberty, Which?” This chapter begins with the idea that we are all God’s children and through that Truth, we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God. Our belief in bondage is our own and if we believe it, it will be true. Our bondage comes from a false belief—from living from our lower selves where we are subject to emotional reactions and selfish limited thinking. Thinking that tells us we are losing something we think belongs to us or that we will not get something we want. Dr. Cady explains so well what we once thought was true and what we can now know is True on pages 4 and 5:
“Hitherto we have believed that we were helped and comforted by others, that we received joy from outside circumstances and surroundings, but it is not so. All joy and strength and good spring up from a fountain within one’s own being, and if we only knew this Truth, we should know that, because God in us is the fountain out of which springs all our good, nothing that anyone does or says, or fails to do or say, can take away our joy and good.”
She goes on to say that we must always remember that we are God’s children, not His servants. We have falsely believed that we were “slaves to circumstances,” victims of others and of situations and at best here to be “servants of the Most High.” So, it is time to wake up to right thoughts and understand that we are heirs to all God has to offer us. We are in bondage to only our limiting thoughts, beliefs and old concepts that may have come from generations of negative thinking. Our bondage is our own and we hold the keys to our own jail cell!
So today, let us pick up the keys to our inheritance: wisdom—so we can trust ourselves to discern the Truth about any situation; love—so we need not be driven by fear or envy; all strength, all life, all power, all good! This is our freedom, and it belongs to us and to everyone else!
Speaking of freedom, I am so happy to report that today at 9:00 am, my husband is getting his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine! He is receiving it as a result of being an employee over 65 of Pinellas County Schools. I have registered and plan to get the vaccine as soon as it is available to me. You can be sure I will let you know when that happens. To me this is our way out of these circumstances which seem to be temporarily restricting our freedoms. However, the present experience is only temporary and to the benefit of ourselves, our brothers, and sisters. Personal responsibility is always a freeing decision!
I pray each day and affirm the safety and well-being of all of you and all members of the human family, all of God’s children! I know we have less time of isolation ahead of us than is behind us!
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