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I AM WHAT I THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG

By David J. Abbot, MD

Found here

I am what I think about all day long. Whoever I am, I am that person first in my mind. Whatever I accomplish, I accomplish it first in my mind. Whatever I become, I become it first in my mind.

The way I use my mind defines what it means to be me. At the most basic level, I am what I think about all day long. My mind is the only part of me that can change or that would ever be worth changing. If I want to change who I am, I must change the collection of thoughts that defines what it means to be me.

What I think about is important, because it changes who I am. When I think positive thoughts, I become a more positive person. When I think empowering thoughts, I become a stronger person. When I think resourceful thoughts, my life moves in the direction of excellence, and I become a better person. When I think unlimited thoughts, I realize there is no limit to how good my life can become.

I become what I think about all day long.

Sunday Service, 9:30 am

July 24^th

Robert Spiegel

I Am What I Think

Board Training

July 24th, after the Service

Sunday Service, 9:30 am

July 31^st

Anne-Marie Lax

Faith That Fulfills

Youth & Family Education

Sunday School

We are happy to have our Sunday School program up and running!

Have you ever wondered how Harry Potter can help you awaken spiritually? Ever thought how this simple children's story can help you and your family understand Truth and Unity's basic principles? If you answered yes to these, then Lumindorf School for the Magical and Mystical is the place for you.

This class will explore the first four books in the Harry Potter series, illuminating the Truth found within them. We will read sections of the book, discuss the principles and how to apply them to our lives, and finish up with a creative experience to help express what was gained from the lesson. Lumindorf is designed for children between 5 and 11. Younger children will have supervised play but will not be expected to participate in the curriculum.

When we have children only in the preschool age group (3-5) in attendance, then we will use the preschool version of The Teachings of Jesus for Children. This developmentally appropriate curriculum is designed to provide stories experiences, and activities that help the children understand that they are loved just as they are; to explore Jesus as a human being and as a model for love and goodness; to help the children understand that they, too, have the spiritual potential to act in ways that bring out their best selves, and to help them develop their spiritual potential to express love and caring for others.

Facilitator: Fancy Ruff-Wagner, M.Ed.

Music Ministry - Second Saturday Community CoffeeHouse

Saturday, August 13th, 6:00 - 9:30

Headliner: Seth Hoffman

Opening: Cassette

MC: Bill Moffatt

Sponsor: None so far - could it be you?

Join us for this great night of music and fun!

Come on down for coffee or tea, treats, and a wholesome family night in a listening room environment where new and seasoned performers can offer up their songs and stories to an attentive, all-ages audience. The House opens at 6 pm, music begins at 6:30.

FREE! Love Offerings will be accepted.

Be sure to check out our other CoffeeHouse Pages!

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Inspiration from Unity

Voices in Unity: A Conversation with Mirabai Starr

Mirabai Starr, who lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, is an author and highly sought-after speaker on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice.

Unity: How do you best explain who you are and the work you do?

Mirabai: I draw from the teachings of the mystics of all the world's religions and spiritual traditions, and convey that essence in a way that any contemporary seeker can understand and connect with. I translate these perennial wisdom teachings in a contemporary voice so they're relevant to real people's lives. My special area of interest is inter-spirituality-where all faiths meet in the heart. Although I'm recognized as a scholar of the mystics, particularly Christian mystics, I go for the heart. I bring out the poetry in these teachings and the transformational power of the mystics.

Unity: You had a very interesting upbringing. Tell us about that and how it formed who you are and the work you do today.

Mirabai: My parents dropped out of mainstream society in 1972. We moved from suburban Long Island, New York, to the mountains of New Mexico, via a year on a remote Caribbean beach in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. In Taos, New Mexico, we lived communally. My parents were part of the back-to-the-land movement. The reason we moved to Taos was there was a marvelous alternative school there that was very much centered on the creative arts, and the school, although started by British intellectuals, was handed over to Lama Foun�da�tion (founded in 1967). It's the original inten�tional spir�i�tual com�mu�nity and still exists and flourishes today, where all religious traditions are honored and practiced. There, I was exposed to the heart of all faiths and they were all presented as being equally true and equally beautiful. I thought everybody was open to all of the world religions as being true and beautiful. I thought everyone was an inter-spiritual being. That's where I met my first teachers and people who had the most influence on me, like Ram Dass, who continues to be a dear friend and mentor. I feel very much that death was the catalyst for me and for my spiritual path.

Unity: Could you elaborate on that?

Mirabai: When I was 7, my brother died of a brain tumor. For me it was a profoundly mysterious experience that was imbued with the sacred. Nobody else talked about it, so it was just a private experience. Then when I was 14, my first love was killed in a gun accident. That's when I went rushing into the arms of God, I would say. I think I was always an introspective child. I was writing poetry at 8. I liked to be alone. I wasn't antisocial, but I wasn't a social creature. I could never relate to my peers, particularly as a teenager. What they were interested in was so not interesting to me. I was into yoga, meditation, chanting. At 16, I thought I'd be enlightened by 20.

Unity: You share on your website that your youngest daughter was killed in a car accident in 2001 when she was just 14-and that she died on the same day as your first book (Dark Night of the Soul: St. John of the Cross) came out. I can't even imagine ...

Mirabai: I don't know either how I manage to keep breathing in the face of these things. Jenny's death coinciding with the release of the first book; that's how my memoir begins. UPS delivered an advance copy and a half hour later the police were at my door telling me my daughter had been in an accident, and she was gone. Even though I had been on a serious spiritual path since I was 14, my path truly began on that day. It was a path that led through fire into an abject wilderness where there was no map, and none of the tools and techniques I had gathered so carefully served me.

Unity: How did you survive that?

Mirabai: I guess I knew just enough from my studies of the sacred texts and my own experience of silent meditation practice to know it was okay to know nothing. My only task was to sit in the darkness and be with it without any expectation of relief or reward or sense of meaning. I allowed my unraveling to happen without meddling and, as a result, organically and authentically a new self began to emerge from the ashes of my loss-a new being that was much simpler and more childlike and more connected to the human experience than ever before.

Unity: Were you shocked that that happened?

Mirabai: No. I guess what I'm saying is rather than rendering me special, my loss placed me squarely in the center of the human experience, and I took my rightful place in the human family. I am at home here ... All of my other books unfolded from that (first) book. The strange irony is when my daughter died, my new life began. I didn't want that. I would have traded everything for one more chance to hold her in my arms. Yet this is what happened. I was blasted off into the world in a big way when all I wanted to do was fold in on myself and be alone and hold my loss close. I was blessed because I had signed a contract for my second book (The Interior Castle: St. Teresa of Avila). That enabled me to stay home in the quiet and work. Having that clear task of translating that mystical masterpiece was very life-giving-and also because her (St. Teresa) teachings were so comforting and beautiful. She became very real for me, like a beloved aunt or grandmother who was sitting with me in my grief.

Unity: Where are you today in your work and in your writing?

Mirabai: Flourishing-in spite of myself! I haven't sought this out, but I am doing a lot of writing and speaking. Finally, after 11 or 12 books, I'm finally ready to write about this experience, about the loss of my daughter, and how this coincided with my first book, and how the teachings of the mystics have not only helped me survive this loss, but actually created an alchemical transmutation in my own soul. It's not that I was hiding behind these translations, but it was a refuge for me so I could share these great classic perennial wisdom teachings without having to make any claims about my own knowing. I'm still not making any claims-I'm just telling my stories. It's clearly time to be more self-revealing. I'm willing to do this, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Even though it's a tragic story, I use a lot of humor. I'm happy to do this now at this time, because what do I turn to when I need guidance and inspiration? I want to hear the real stories of real people. I don't want sermons. I don't want self-help books. I want to hear the real stories of real human beings, who aren't pretending to be enlightened. Why wouldn't I return the favor and give such an offering?

Learn more about Mirabai at www.mirabaistarr.com.

Prayer


Please add the following people to your prayer/meditation practice: (updated weekly) USCEM Jeannette P. (healing) Tyler (guidance) West Virginia Istanbul Ventura, CA Baghdad, Iraq Anne-Marie (perfect employment) All affected by the violence by and against US Police Officers Anne-Marie (perfect employment) Amanda (highest good) Nice, France Robyn (healing and courage) Ankara, Turkey	uPray uPray, a free prayer app from Silent Unity, is now available. uPray is available for Apple iOS 7.0 or later and Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) or later. With the app you can submit a prayer request to Silent Unity, listen to the month's meditation and the Prayer for Protection, and read affirmations across a broad list of topics.	"Silent Unity. How may we pray with you?" Do you have a prayer request? There are several ways to contact Silent Unity, the 24/7-prayer ministry: Call: 1-800-NOW-PRAY (669-7729) International: 01-816-969-2000 Write: Silent Unity, 1901 NW Blue Parkway, Unity Village, MO 64065-0001 Or use our online prayer request form.

Support Your Spiritual Center


Smith's Community Rewards Smith's Community Rewards makes fundraising for USCEM easy...simply by using your Smith's Rewards Card at any Smith's! There is no cost to enroll, and enrollment will not affect your fuel points or coupon discounts. You must have a registered Smith's Rewards Card to participate. If you do not, you can apply for one at Customer Service. If you don't know your number because you use your phone number at the register, you can call 800-576-4377 and select option 4. You must link your card to USCEM online. If you have an online account already, go to the website below, sign in, and click on your name to go to your account. Scroll down and edit the Community Rewards section. Enter our NPO number or our name and select us from list and click on "Enroll". If you don't have an online account, you must click "Register" in the upper right corner on the website. Sign up for a Smith's Rewards Account by entering your email address, creating a password. Enter your zip code in the "Your location", then by selecting your favorite store, and agreeing to the terms and conditions. A message to check your email inbox will appear, Check your email account, you must click on the link within the body of the email. Click on "Sign in" located in the upper right corner and use your email address and password to proceed to the next step. Click on your name to go to your Account. In Account Summary click on "Edit" Rewards Card and input your Smith's rewards card number. Confirm your information. Scroll down and edit the Community Rewards section. Enter our NPO number or our name and select us from list and click on "Enroll". So far we have earned $50.59 in 2016! Go to Smith's Community Rewards to Enroll or Register/Enroll Our NPO number: 24564	Let Your Online Shopping Support Us Whether you shop at Amazon, Walmart.com, Itunes, or many other online retailers, your purchases can help support USCEM. Always start on the USCEM Shopping Site. From there you go to your favorite retailer and a percentage of your purchases will be sent to us later - at no extra cost to you. The average amount paid to us is a little more than 5% of your purchases. Bookmark this URL and always start here. Then go shopping. http://impactshopping.com/USCEM/ So far we've earned $149.73 in 2016! We didn't earn anything in 2015 - although we earned $94 in 2014. It's probably because people weren't starting at the shopping page. Please do this - it costs you nothing extra and is an easy habit to adopt. Go to the USCEM Shopping Page	The Law of Giving and Receiving By Ernest Holmes Everything in Nature moves in circles. What goes out must come back. Unless the seed is sown it cannot bear fruit. There must be a planting time for every harvest. Who gives all receives all. Who refuses to give, limits the possibility of the greater good returning to him. Love and you will be loved. Extend joy and you will become more joyful. The ancient Talmud says, "God will doubly guide the already guided" and Jesus, the greatest of the great, said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6:38) We do not give because God needs the gift but because the giving increases, broadens and deepens the life of the giver. Nor shall we give from the standpoint of duty. The universe refuses to bargain with us. It already has given us everything it has. But it also has provided that the gift of life can be received in its fullness only as it flows through us to the fullness of others. How wonderful is this exact balance which God and nature keep; how perfect is the law of God and how glorious the opportunity to join with the infinite Giver in the givingness of the self to the joy of life! Letter to Members & Friends Conscious Giving Guide Conscious Giving Commitment Card

Thanks for Reading!

Have a great week!

In love and gratitude,

Fancy Ruff-Wagner
Your Newsletter Editor

505-286-1203
admin@unityemtns.org

http://www.unityemtns.org

Unity - A Positive Path for Spiritual Living