Transformation does not require grand gestures. Transformation requires willingness.
It has become my practice to select my calendars carefully. For our shared family space, I enjoy finding some type of artwork or photography that we might not normally seek out. At my business office, I use a large 3-month wall calendar. In my personal space at home, I will be enjoying the dharma teachings of Pema Chodron.
For my own personal "This is the schedule of my life and I don't commit to anything without checking it first" calendar, I have begun the practice of creating my own. I relish selecting just the right sketchbook with just the right paper and I savor drawing the gridlines of each month, numbering the daily squares, and labeling the "special" days. And then I enjoy the best part of the project: throughout the year I take pleasure in creating the images that decorate and give meaning to this daily tool of life.
Something that started three years ago because I couldn't find "just the right one" has become a space of focus and intention for me as I create this special document each year. This on-going never-completed project allows me to sit, think about the days and weeks and months of my journey, contemplate where I am, how I got here, and where I might like to go. It has helped me to accept that I can do a certain amount of day-to-day planning and goal-setting, but there must always be space for the guidance of Spirit. I do not know at the beginning of the year what will develop in those blank pages. It has become a space to remember to be thankful for whatever does develop.
My calendar reminds me that in February I'll be attending our SW Regional Unity leadership gathering. In March, Cindy Cawthorne will teach an SEE class. In April I'll resume teaching. In June, Jon and I will celebrate our 34th anniversary and our son's 29th birthday. All of those things are noted on the calendar and will, in all likelihood, come (and go) as expected.
And... there are a lot of blank pages in the calendar of my life for the coming year. So I ask and I listen. I take the steps that I know are mine to take as I know them, and I continue to ask and I continue to listen. I claim the intention to seek first the kingdom of God, and I claim willingness to remain patient when the pages of that calendar don't unfold as I thought they "should". As I draw the outer lines that represent the framework of my journey of 2011, I focus inward, allowing each stroke of my pen to represent my willingness to live fully each day of the coming year. I allow each mark I make to serve as a reminder that in each moment I will have the option to choose that which best serves me and the Wholeness of which I am a part.
This coming year, our Sunday services will be aligned with the intention of learning to live our lives in awareness of the Oneness that we are, and claiming the abundance that is our birthright. When I speak of Oneness, I am not speaking only of our Unity family, or even our like-minded New Thought family. I am referring to the Oneness, the Wholeness, that is Truth. We share this planet and this human experience with brothers and sisters who find God clothed in the traditions and beliefs of other paths. In our shared human-ness, there seems to be a tendency to focus on our differences. When we look at our differences, we tend to begin thinking in terms of "us and them", which can quickly transition to "us VS. them".
We'll explore Truth as taught by our own Unity teachers, as well as the many ways that same Truth is taught in other faith traditions. There is a saying (which I originally learned from a Hindu teaching): "There is one mountaintop, and an infinite number of paths to the mountaintop." One of those shared teachings is that, as we first seek God, everything we need is supplied. I invite you to set an intention in the pages of your calendar this year to join us as we focus on allowing the awareness of Oneness and abundance to unfold in our lives.
