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Easy To Release by Rev. Carol Willis

In getting ready to enter a new year, it’s not easy to close the door on the year we’re leaving. Yes, we try to help ourselves by making resolutions that become difficult to keep. Why is that? 

It’s not that our thoughts are lingering in the past, but our emotions are still attached to the past causing us sadness and heartache in the present. This is a natural part of being human. If we can’t release and let go of of unhappiness, sadness, loss, grief, disappointment and other emotions like these, we are stuck in an unhealthy cycle.

Is it any wonder that people resort to artificial means to bring comfort and escape for a while?

And that’s a whole new experience to release.

We have heard that “time heals all wounds”. Releasing and letting go isn’t something one can plan to happen. It can sneak up on you. One day you’ll notice you feel different, more like yourself. That can only happen when we take baby steps to get back to living our everyday lives. It happens when we let family and friends support us in moving forward. And it helps us to cherish memories of those we have loved and still love, or days gone by and good times we enjoyed.

The Loving Spirit has given us a beautiful life to live. While we are here on Earth, we agree to live that life to the fullest. There will always be good times, bad times, and in between times. The Course in Miracles states: “I walk in love and gratitude”. Lifting up our thoughts allows us to attach a new feeling to that thought. Thoughts and feelings only have the power we give them by holding on to them and feeding them energy. Take that away and they die for lack of attention.

Be gentle with yourself in the letting go process. Each moment is a step forward.

Many blessings of love and light,

Rev. Carol Willis

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Here’s Rev David (l) with Trustees Fiona Norton and Rev Keith Norton.

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In Ken’s Words

By Rev Ken Nowaczewski

Many call Spiritualism a beautiful religion, and for many reasons. I agree.

At the turn of the century, Spiritualism was one of the most popular of religions. Today it has dwindled to small, scattered groups. It is often difficult to remember, no matter what our size, we still require rules and guidelines to be successful. Over the years I have been aware of many who feel rules are unnecessary, but without rules to follow we would have chaos, after all isn’t Natural Law the basis of Spiritualism and the Universe? When we stay on task with those rules, we are able to stay the course of Spiritualism.

Several reasons I find Spiritualism beautiful are as follows:

Reason 1: The God we believe in is loving and all forgiving, not threatening and vengeful. We preach responsibility for our actions and a loving creative spirit ever willing to assist and heal us if we allow it.

Reason 2: We sing. Church should be thankful to have any joyful noise. Our group certainly gives it’s all in that arena! Without musicians, and often off key we manage to celebrate God through music. Music is an important way of worshipping, and I doubt God cares what key it is in, or if it is sang or chanted.

Reason 3: We have a family of volunteers who serve. Our volunteers are the backbone of our church. The groups are often small; therefore, a church must rely on dedicated people giving their time and energy, taking training and classes sometimes at their expense to give back to the ministry or sharing their given talents in whatever way they can. Members volunteer on the Board of Directors, teach classes, cook meals, and clean (an important church job). They keep the yard in order, keep records, outreach services, Sunday healers and mediums giving their time. Ministers offering support to those in need, guide the services, and doing anything else that needs to b done, Often Thankless Jobs. There are so many who help the church run smoothly, we are grateful for them all, so get involved with your church – Volunteer!

Reason 4: A church has a congregation, not an audience, and with that comes the responsibility to worship. Those in a congregation commune, with and respect, a higher power that we call Infinite Intelligence, or God. He is the creative Power and is worthy of a service with dignity and respect. We follow a structed guideline in our service, we must hold to and embrace. We love when members come in and take advantage of our quiet healing meditation and the beginning             of the service and stay to worship with us.

Reason 5: We are a welcoming family who embrace new faces, knowing there are no accidents, all have come for a diving reason, those looking for belief, not just a club or group of common interest. Even when we don’t see the faces of our regular members every Sunday, they are in our thoughts and heart, because in Spiritualism, we are all one.

Reason 6: Spiritualism is an organized religion in its’ own right, as any other organized religious belief we rely on the loyalty of our congregation to survive. There are many that don’t think of us as a religion, but we have been since the 1870’s.

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Childhood

By Lisa Argo, Member

As most of you know I am a Nanny. Right now, I have two charges, Michael and Eydie. Michael is 5 an intelligent child that loves trains. Eydie is two and is amazing. As anyone who knows me knows I love children.

About nine months ago I put Eydie in her chair for lunch and their mother and I began the lunch dance for the two kids. I teared up for a moment and Nicole asked me if I was okay. I blurted out that this was about the age I began to be abused.

Now that really is something you don’t want to recall with two active kids and your employer. But it was true. And I did.

About a year and a half ago I wrote a post on Facebook. I didn’t get a chance to finish the complete thought and it was disturbing to a few friends and family.

I was overwhelmed with the responsibility that I had accepted in regard to these beautiful children.

Let me back up a minute.

I was raised with parents with minimum income. We lived with relatives on more than one occasion. I slept on mattresses on the floor. We did have homes here and there, but my dad didn’t keep up payments, so they were taken away. Before my parents divorced we moved more than 15 times. I was four when my mother left my father. 

After the divorce my mother moved us to Michigan to live with her younger brother, his wife and their daughters. Then we moved about 5 more times. My mother worked hard in a male dominated field and she was able to buy a house when I was 15.

After I moved out I moved around another 10 times including the Chicago area, North Carolina and then back up to Michigan. I needed to come home.  My best friend was going to have a baby.

This really is relevant.

Sometimes I made quite good money and sometimes I didn’t.

This brings me back to my current charges.

I worked in the schools as a paraprofessional but my husband and I wanted something more for my income into our bank account, so I signed up to a website for Nanny’s. This was something I knew, and I could do. I met Nicole in August of 2015 and began with them that month.  

They lived in Birmingham. She was bright, young, vivacious, intelligent, asked wonderful questions in the interview and appeared to love her son and informed me she was expecting another child in the spring of 2016. I was excited. I felt the connection with her and when I met Michael was just blow away.

I mean the child, a 2-year-old, explained hydraulics to me. I thought maybe I was a bit over my head in this one. But I persevered.

But what I saw, felt and came to know was that Nicole, her husband, her family loved these children, nurtured them and wanted what was good and right for them.

As you suspect, they have money. Different worlds. Different quality of life. They are able to give their children what the need. They love their children. They treat their children with respect. They nurture wisely. Nicole’s mom is a former teacher. Nicole and I were on the same page with discipline and reading, learning and playing. I felt right at home.

This leads me back to my facebook post.

There were so many differences between us. How I was raised, the environment I was raised in and the lack of income to provide the basic needs.

Then there were the emotional aspects that came into play.

My mother took a blue teddy bear from my cousin.

My grandmother gave me a Jolly Green Giant toy when it was another cousins’.

They were very dear to me my life.

I felt the differences.

Who was I to be put into the position to love, nurture and guide these children when I was never loved, nurtured or guided in a positive manner?

Who was I to be chosen to lead the way for these children?

I wonder if everyone has those questions when asked to step into their own greatness.

To step into their true path.

All the children I have known, all the children I have loved and still love and still know, Erica and Brian,

Cara, Jennifer, Josh,

Jesse and Samme,

my cousins, Becky and Laura,

and now Michael and Eydie,

my step-step-grandchilren, Leilani and Eliot

and soon my step-grandson Calvin all have a piece of my heart.

All have a piece of my soul.

So, I relish the days now with Michael and Eydie. Michael will start Kindegarden in September. Eydie will start pre-school for a few days a week in September also and I’ll go down in hours. I’ve started my children’s books so I’m putting it out there that they will take off so I will be able to spend time with Cal.

Since that moment in the kitchen I have rewritten my past. I have rewoven patterns of my life when I was a child.  It is sort of an overlay of how I treat Eydie and myself with love, light, positive energy and patience. I am learning to love the child I was, celebrate the life I had, have and show this child the love I have in my heart.

I’d like to leave you with this from Winnie the Pooh:

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

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My Mirror is My Cat

By Rev Kathleena Katona

The Universe reflects perfect mirrors back to us at different times, in many different forms, some of those mirrors come to us in the form of pets. Approximately 30 years, daughter number one, Renee, brought home a tabby which she called Giddy Lee. This young tabby’s personality was such that she was totally absorbed in her own little world. She insisted on having things her own way, even to the point of bringing home mice, laying them on our back-door step and then demanding we bring those mice in for her to enjoy – at her leisure. Giddy had many expectations of others also, even if it was at their own expense. She was a class act (this world revolves around me, so get used to it!). Unexpectedly, two years later another cat arrived. She was a long-haired Ming who we claimed and named Skidder, as she was emotionally unattached, defiant, and even caustic. Her only love was for our youngest daughter, Alexandrea, and everyone else could just clear their path away, unless she was being fed, groomed and her litter refreshed. As Alex grew older and our Michael came into her life, Skidder would literally slap him right on the face every chance she got. She would sneak up behind him, get on his shoulder, then… whack! It is a miracle they even have a cat today as Michael was not keen on one for a long, long time. It seems two years is the magic number. Female cat number three arrived two years later. My Storme. Her Modis Apparend Di was fear. She let every animal in our home dominate her, the other two cats and a dog we had called Slapshot. She was always looking for direction and confirmation of her self-worth. Short-haired, domestic, pretty in color, but insecure in nature, she gave meaning to the name Scaredy Cat! After a period of 17 years, we became void of cat pets, as time had taken its toll, and they began the journey to the other side of the veil. I was lonely and depressed without my female cat counterparts. Jim, one day at a Petmart, saw a beautiful and unique cat. He came home, got me, and said “Kathleen, I have just the right mate for you”. When I got to her cage at the rescue center she ignored me. Somewhat apprehensive that if she showed me how lonely she was and how much she wanted love, I would run. But, the minute I signed the papers she jumped in my arms and a real love story developed. I adored that cat, named her Annabelle and loved her more deeply than I ever thought I could love a pet. Whatever I wanted was good with her, she helped me though my time of grief and my adjustment into a new environment and life style. Then one day, on a wellness check, about a year from the date I got her, it was over for me. She was not one, like I had been told, she was five years old. She also had advanced kidney failure. What a cruel awakening. That year, 2005, I lost Jim and Louie, our dog (who literally died of a broken heart because his dad was no long here on this plane), then my precious Annabelle. I don’t know what the lesson all of this was. I don’t know what the mirror reflected. Maybe it was all good and beautiful lives come to an end. Maybe it was that I had had emotional attachments of their finest. Maybe it was every season has its own design, a Spring thaw, a Summer flourish, an Autumn harvest and a Winter’s death. Then, in August of 2006, I got one more cat. Maxine. She is me to a tee! We both have an amazing amount of Pure Life Force Energy, we play we laugh, we work, and we share. I have learned much about myself through the faces of my cats. I know I have learned to love myself, laugh at myself and to take life everyday just as it comes. It’s because of Maxine that I have softened and grown. It is because of her that I have learned how to give more than I took. Thank you to my reflections.

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Ministerial Staff that will write blogs: from l to r: Rev Kathleena Katona, Rev Barbara Yarnell, Rev Keith Norton, Rev Ken Nowaczewski, Rev Marie Phillips and Rev Carol Willis.  Not pictured is Rev David Shaw, our newest minister.

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Death

By Rev Barbara Yarnell

I was wide awake in the middle of the night thinking about the two memorial services I had attended in the past 16 days. Spirit led me to consider the similarities and the differences between the two people that were gone from the physical. I decided it was worth sharing. The first event was July 14, 2017. My beloved nephew was killed in a kayak accident. Lawrance, 48, was trained and an experienced kayaker. The kayak being used was his own. He was with a male adult friend. The kayak was caught in a boil, a dangerous area of water rushing up to the surface. Both men were rescued but Lawrence was brain dead and physically died that evening. He left a young wife and three young children. The second event was July 29, 2017. My friend Louise Reeves was memorialized after his physical death at 86 ½ years of age. It was said he was very proud of the ½ therefore it was added to any paperwork referring to his physical age. The services were the same in that they were well attended, had both tears and laughter, and did not have the ashes present. However there were also differences: Lawrance went out one Sunday morning expecting to return and never did. Louis was ready to go, had told people he was anxiously awaiting the time when he could discard the body that was quickly wearing out. Lawrance left a wife and three children. Louis had never married and had no children. I believe that every death teaches us something but two deaths so close together had its own new lessons and repeats for me. Lesson #1: Young or old we have no guarantees of a tomorrow on Earth. I am more grateful than ever for every morning I wake up. Lesson #2: Do not hold grudges and regrets. I am aware of disagreements in the case of my nephew that remain unresolved. Lesson #3: If there is a grudge or regret at the time of a death release it NOW. For the sake of your soul and for the survivors let it go. Do not take old wounds into the memorial or funeral. Leave them at the door and do not pick them up on the way out. Lesson #4: Remember that the Spirit is eternal. Although the physical is gone the Spirit lives on and is in a place we all go to one day. Hold onto the fact that the separation is not permanent. Lesson #5: Always remember - 1 Thessalonians 4:13 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” Lesson #6: It is OK to cry: John 11 tells the story of Lazarus’s death and resurrection. Not only did Jesus not criticize the family and friends of Lazarus for weeping, He also wept. The Bible teaches us to sympathize and empathize with others who are grieving. This lesson could also be titled “It is OK to mourn”. Lesson #7:  Spiritual growth takes place more in difficult times than in easy times. When a loved one dies, it’s a valuable time to reflect on your own mortality and your relationship with God. All of us will face the loss of a loved one. The alternative is to die very young, somewhere between 1-365 days. Even then I believe the soul knows of the loss. Learn from the death of a loved one. Death is God’s gift to us as we become free of a body that is no longer useful and enter a new body as we return home to whom we really are.