by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
August 19, 2021
The ability to imagine things influences everything we do, think about and create. It leads to elaborate theories, dreams, and inventions in all professions, from academia to engineering and the arts.
Imagination boosts the brain because it makes us think in a non-standard way, outside-of-the-box, as it were. As a result, we can come up with unexpected solutions and create scenarios that solve problems effectively.
A great way to provoke the imagination is to seek out environments with which you have no experience. When we experience something enough times, our brain becomes more adept at processing the information, the neuron connections become more effective, and the brain doesn’t have to work as hard.
Reading a book offers an opportunity to imagine, dream, and visualize all the characters, scenes, and experiences you are reading. However, when you see a movie made from a book, you don’t use your imagination, as all of the characters and story details get presented to you in a particular way.
Photographer Om Malik believes the unseen is what fuels the imagination. He captured a series of photos of a horse, and the one image that grabbed him was where the window frames of a stable hid the horse’s eyes. Imagine.
Japanese aesthetics comprise a set of ancient ideals that include wabi, sabi, and yugen. Wabi is considered a transient, stark beauty. Sabi is defined as the beauty of natural aging. Together they form wabi-sabi, a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.
Yugen is a profound awareness of the universe that invokes inexplicably deep feelings too mysterious or profound for words. The experience triggers a deep emotional response. Examples of yugen are moonlight and its reflection on the water, birds flying high in the evening sky, or the sun rising over the ocean. I enjoy seeing groups of birds flying together, either swarming around or in a perfect vee. It stirs me on the deepest level every time.
Ernest Holmes wrote, “I am guided by the same intelligence and inspired by the same imagination which scatters the moonbeams across the waves and holds the forces of nature in its grasp.” He was open at the top and used his intellectual brilliance to weave the words of great thinkers into a Divine tapestry illuminating Spirit in wondrous and mind-expanding ways.
Let’s carve out time in our busy schedules each day to become quiet, still, calm, and refreshed so that we might let our imaginations run wild and gallantly forward toward our highest and greatest good. Life is a great adventure, and our dreams will become a reality if we fan the Divine spark with faith and conviction.
To be sure your imagination gets sparked to run toward your highest good and not triggered to run away from it, remember to take enough time daily to cultivate a calm and receptive consciousness. Be still and know, remain poised, connected, refreshed, and in the flow of Spirit.
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
August 5, 2021
I heard a great story recently about a certain lobster who was unhappy with his shell. He complained to his creator and explained that he liked himself and didn’t want a new shell. He asked if he could keep his current shell forever. The creator agreed to the lobster’s desire.
At first, the lobster was very happy with his shell, but as time passed, it became heavy and tight, and he couldn’t feel anything outside himself. Finally, bumping into others, barely able to breathe, and frustrated, he returned to his creator to tell him the shell was not staying the same but was shrinking. The creator explained to the lobster that the shell hadn’t changed at all. Instead, the lobster had changed on the inside – within his shell.
Life brings opportunities for our growth, and it’s up to us whether we choose to grow or maintain the status quo, the comfort zone.
Years ago, when I dabbled in the flying trapeze, I learned a fundamental f trick at my first lesson. That trick was to climb the ladder up to the platform, get ready, bend knees, place hands on the trapeze bar, and step off the platform when prompted to do so. Next, place both knees over the bar at the right and perfect time when you have gravity on your side, then hang upside down. Finally, when you swing to the other person waiting on the next bar, you reach for their arms and let go of your bar to be caught by them. Tada! I mastered this trick in five attempts at my first lesson. I felt accomplished and thrilled at how fast I was flying through the air now, and with perfect form.
After coming down from the net, the instructor turned to me and said, “Elizabeth, it’s time for you to learn a new trick.” I thought, wait, what – there are other tricks to learn? I thought this was the end game. But, oh no, “That’s just the beginning,” they said.
I remember thinking I didn’t want to learn a new trick. I just mastered this one. I’ll have to have a beginner’s mind once again, and I was happy feeling like an accomplished expert. Allowing these thoughts safe passage through my mind, I found myself taking the next step forward to learn the new trick.
Isn’t that how life goes for us all? We grow and change constantly. We live in a progressive universe, and the earth is vibrating at a higher frequency than it was ten years ago. It’s changed, and it will continue to change. We are each evolving and growing, and it’s okay.
You’re going to be okay amid your growth and change because you have a connection with Spirit, and you maintain close contact with It, which strengthens your faith and your belief. Your faith and belief are the beams of support that carry you forward. You grow and glow with God!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
July 22, 2021
Is your commitment to the unfolding vision of your life greater than your resistance? It takes discipline to follow through and keep your commitments.
For many, the word discipline carries a negative charge and gets pushed aside or avoided. However, consider another word for discipline is practice, and another word for commitment is promise. Thus, you can perceive self-discipline as the opportunity to practice your promises – the promises you made to yourself – God within you. When you keep the promises you made to yourself, you feel a sense of accomplishment because you have kept your word and are in integrity, with dignity, elegance, passion, and deep contentment.
It takes discipline to eat food that nourishes our bodies, drink at least eight glasses of water per day, have a regular spiritual practice, and change our thinking to change our lives. Discipline keeps us on track with where we are determined to make changes. It is an act of self-love, self-respect, and surrender that leads to freedom.
Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith shares a great example in his book, Spiritual Liberation. He invites us to imagine having a regular meditation practice where you take time to sit in silence for forty minutes every morning. You begin to see the results of your practice in your life with less stress, more peace, and greater happiness. One day your spouse needs help taking your kid to school, and you pitch in for the next two weeks. Rather than waking up a little earlier in the morning to accommodate this new responsibility and still have time to meditate, you tell yourself, “Oh, I just don’t feel like it, and besides, I need my rest.’”
What happened? Your emotional reasoning justified your decision not to make the necessary effort to honor your aspiration to meditate every morning. However, the beautiful gift of self-discipline is that it has the power to take you beyond the reasoning of temporary emotion to freedom.
When you apply discipline to the spiritual path, it’s life-changing. The root of the word discipline is to discern or to perceive clearly. In the book Love, Freedom, and Aloneness, Osho observed, “To be a disciple means to learn the discipline of being yourself. Your true self.”
Your true self is the Self within all selves. It is the unconditioned radiant you that was born into the world. It knows what you came here to do and who you came here to be. It’s up to you to remove the barriers preventing you from hearing the still small voice within you. It’s the voice of your intuition, the part of you that patiently waits for you to notice and listen to it. If you have yet to contact that place within you, meditation is the place to begin.
It’s time to get back on track with the promises you made to yourself, to God within you. A little discipline goes a long way. You can do it!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
July 8, 2021
The bible states that Jesus taught, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Dr. Ernest Holmes agreed in part of his definition of freedom that, “The understanding of Truth-Infinite Principle-is the emancipator.” To free your mind is to have your thoughts be illuminated by the Divine, which is Truth.
Truth as in Spirit, not as in the fact-based reality of this is true or false. So, for example, the sky is indeed blue, or it’s false that the sun is cold, instead, Truth as higher consciousness, or Spirit consciousness.
Aligning myself with Spirt is harmonizing with the thoughts that vibrate at a higher frequency. You know them when you think them as they are thoughts that spark joy, thoughts that incite an energetic buzz, causing little bumps to cover your flesh. I call them God bumps, and they are better known as gooseflesh. The idea is to be so keenly aware of the thoughts passing through your mind that you can identify those of higher vibration to make a mental note to yourself to think them again.
Many people tend to think the same thoughts repeatedly that produce suffering for themselves, and they are so immersed in their beliefs that they are unable to lift themselves out of said suffering. They can’t see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. The easy and quick remedy is to pick up a spiritual book, a sacred text, and begin reading it. Your thoughts will flow with the energy of the holy text and away from those that created suffering.
The mind will wander as it does, and you will be required to wrestle it back to the sacred text. It takes practice, as with anything. But, as you practice aligning your thoughts with the sacred text, you begin to feel lighter, and you give yourself a wonderful reprieve from the constant self-induced suffering you’ve endured. The words of the sacred textbooks are words of Truth setting your mind free. Free from the illusory thoughts that have bound you. Suddenly you gain an insight for a higher idea for yourself and your life that you couldn’t see before because you were stuck in the default, vintage thought patterns of the past. The answers aren’t there.
Albert Einstein observed, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Similarly, we cannot free our minds with the same thinking we used to create suffering. New thoughts are needed to liberate us from the thoughts that bound us, to lift us out of the muck and into the sparkling sunlight of the Spirit.
Do what you can to keep your mind stayed on Spirit, and you will see an evolution in your thinking. Releasing vintage thoughts, you are propelled into the realm of infinite possibility and unlimited potentiality, which is the realm of pure Spirit. Free your mind. You deserve it.
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
June 24, 2021
Now that we have all grown accustomed to the life of sheltering at home, it’s time to change it up again! Isn’t that the way of things? So what have we learned about ourselves through this interesting time in our lives?
I’ve witnessed individuals undergo a complete transformation during the pandemic because they stayed home and had time to focus on and improve themselves. Then suddenly, after getting the second dose of the vaccination, they abandoned their transformation and returned to the old ways as if it were all but a dream.
It reminds me of taking up the spiritual practice of meditation. At first, there is conscious focus and intention on setting the time and space for dedicated practice. Next, there is the meditation practice itself. Then comes the advanced technique of taking it off the cushion, which means bringing your Zen wherever you are.
It’s easy to find peace on the cushion in your own home, in a space you have set up expressly for your meditation practice. It’s aesthetically pleasing with ambient lighting, tapestries, blankets, eye pillows, and the perfect cushion to keep you comfortable enough to forget your body but not so comfortable that you’ll fall asleep. Incense, images, textures, and the ideal temperature for your sweet serenity. Ahhhh. Or should I say ohhhhm?
The spiritual rubber hits the road when you adventure away from your cushion and into the outer world where other people dwell, people with different upbringings, life experiences, opinions, and belief systems than your own. Maybe you encounter a difference in opinion with someone else, blow your top, and get angry and upset. At that moment, your accumulated meditation practice resets to zero, like a video game. Now you’re called to return to your meditation cushion to rebuild your internal space of peace, love, kindness, and generosity that you experienced and enjoyed before.
Perhaps you’ve abandoned your transformation and are feeling lost or disheartened. I encourage you to give yourself a break. Be gentle with yourself. You have endured so much, and quite honestly, you are crushing it. No need to add to the anxiety, stress, and uncertainty so many are feeling.
You came here to shine, thrive, and be glorious! What is one small change you can make today that would put you back on track with the promises made to yourself at the onset of the shelter in place orders? Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take that step. Start today, right where you are.
I appreciate what American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson observed: “What lies behind us, and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” What lies within you is what I call the Divine. Lean into it. Let it guide you. It wants you to succeed. You are a mighty, magnificent force of which to be reckoned. Let’s do this!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
June 10, 2021
The 13th-century Persian poet Rumi famously said, “The wound is the place where the light gets in.”
I believe this is true because when we are in pain, whether emotional, physical, or spiritual, as we nurture ourselves, tending the wound, our hearts open. The knee-jerk reaction for some, when in pain, is to pick up a drink, a cigarette, go shopping or use some other crutch to assist with moving through it. It doesn’t do the trick, though, as that only numbs the pain temporarily and returns even more intense than before.
The light pours in once the pain has pushed you to the edge of everything you know, and you recognize there must be another way; there must be a more empowering way for me to move through this. You’ve got to move from the place of woe is me, or I can’t believe that happened, to the gentle, loving arms of the Beloved present here, now, within and all around you.
Ernest Holmes observed: “I believe everything is as real as it is supposed to be. If a person hurts, he hurts; there is no use denying it.” Such a powerful statement to recognize that it doesn’t serve us to deny our pain. We can feel our pain and remember that the only way out of it is through it. It’s important to declare this pain is not a punishment. You didn’t do anything wrong. See it as the place where love is attempting to break in. It’s the Divine tapping you from the inside, saying I am here, notice me, feel me, I am here.
When something happens in life, there are facts about what happened, and there is your story about what happened. When you collapse your story with the facts, suffering begins. That suffering is fueled and grows with the retelling of the story in your mind when you share it with your friends, write about it, and share it some more. The constant retelling of the story compounds the suffering. Sometimes our healing is found in the telling of our story. When you are ready to heal and empower yourself, permit yourself to release the story. As the story about what happened is released, the light comes rushing in to replace it with pure love, bliss, peace, harmony, and joy. What happened still happened, but your story about it is no longer present, and it has no power over you.
Remember, the pain you feel is not a punishment for something you did. There isn’t something wrong with you or anything you did to deserve the pain. It just is. Feel the pain, release your story about it, and let in the light. If you were staying over at a friend or relative’s home you are not familiar with and got up in the middle of the night when it was dark, you would instinctively find the light switch and flip it on. Flip the switch and know you are loved.
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
May 27, 2021
A person’s name is the greatest connection to their own identity and individuality. Names carry deep personal, cultural, familial, and historical ties. They give us a sense of who we are, the communities in which we belong, and our place in the world.
We are souls with bodies – we have landed in these bodysuits on this planet at this time. Over the years, we have grown, discovered, learned, and become something. Our experiences have helped shape who we are as individuals and contribute to our identity.
An unhealed ego keeps us separate. A healed ego unifies with the whole. Your wholly holy uprising is your recognition, realization, and embodiment of the oneness and interconnectedness you have with all of life. When your name is spoken, the Divine spark within you awakens, and you radiate your magnificent good outward. What’s in a name?
Consider how much the following names symbolize and what they mean to you when you hear them: Rosa Parks. Jesus. Florence Nightingale. Martin Luther King. Mother Teresa. Malcolm X. Nelson Mandela. Mahatma Gandhi. John Lewis. Harriet Tubman. Dalai Lama. Paramahansa Yogananda. Baba Ram Dass. Maharajji. Amma. Oprah Winfrey.
The 911 memorial is a tribute of remembrance honoring the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. Their names are inscribed on bronze parapets surrounding the twin memorial pools. What’s in a name?
A wise woman once said, “Keep my name safe in your mouth.” What a beautiful reminder to remember when speaking of others, speak highly of them, lift their name if we speak of them, and avoid gossip and negativity.
Another wise woman once said, “Keep my name safe in my mouth.” An equally magnificent reminder to speak highly of yourself, striving to lift yourself, rather than take yourself out with harsh words of negativity. You’ll have to place your inner critic in a time-out for that one.
That same woman also said, “I will keep your name safe in my mouth.” My promise to you, to strive always to lift you and speak highly of you, no matter what.
Say their names is an important movement wherein we are asked to speak the names of black victims killed unjustly. George Floyd. Ahmad Aubrey. Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tanisha Anderson. Willie Tillman. Alton Sterling. Atatiana Jefferson. Rayshard Brooks. And so many more.
We say their names because we know the powerful healing that comes from giving space to grieve and mourn as a community. We open ourselves to be more inclusive and welcoming.
Say their names for remembrance, mourning, and healing. Say your name to call yourself up and out. Contemplate your legacy and what you’d like your name to mean to future generations.
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
May 10, 2021
Meriam-Webster defines revolution as a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something, a change of paradigm.
When we experience a revolution in consciousness, we call it an a-ha moment, a spiritual awakening, or even enlightenment. It’s what’s called for when things appear to be not working in life, and one realizes there is an old belief system operating on an unconscious level. There is an awareness that something needs to shift, but one can’t always pinpoint it because it is unconscious. Sound familiar?
Time for a revolution in the way life is perceived. Why does this always happen to me? What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with them? I’m unlovable. Who do I think I am? It never works out for me; it always works out for others.
In such moments, I encourage students to spend more time in meditation. Meditation allows individuals to be inwardly focused and trains them to look within for the answers rather than seek outside of themselves. The false belief reveals itself as a sentence or a feeling in response to some stimuli. Take that one sentence and affirm the opposite for yourself every time it comes up. You form your new belief through this practice of training your mind to believe something new.
You have the power to create a life you love that is in your ability to choose the thoughts upon which you dwell. Life isn’t happening to you; it’s happening for you. There is nothing wrong here, never was, never will be. You are loved, loving, and lovable. You are a bright, luminous soul here to shine your glorious, radiant light inward and outward to all. You are stronger than you think, more powerful than you can imagine, and stunningly gorgeous. You celebrate the wins of others because when others win, so do you. Say aloud, “It’s my time to shine. I came here to thrive. I am living my divine purpose. I am whole, perfect, complete, and all is well.”
There might be a tiny, meek voice that says, “No, you’re not.” Take a backward step and become the observer. As you witness a thought like this, you know to be false, in your mind’s eye, imagine a bubble. Now place that thought inside the bubble. Let the bubble float into the palm of your hand, then blow that bubble away. When the next false thought arises, do the same. Keep blowing those bubbles away until your mind is still with no thought. Feel the peace of the absence of thought wash over and through you. Consider every cell in your body illuminated by divine healing light.
Your revolution is progressing. The more you can blow those thought bubbles of false beliefs away, the freer you become. Seeing your own life transformed, you learn that you can also affect change in the collective consciousness. How will you contribute to the revolution in our collective consciousness?
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
April 26, 2021
Imagine what it would be like to step out of your comfort zone and step up into the glorious, radiant light you came here to be. Sometimes individuals stay in a comfort zone because they don’t know that a greater-yet-to-be version of life is possible for them. They haven’t yet heard the Divine whisper. American writer Richard Bach observed: What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Last year we were all thrust into rapid change as we received the order to shelter at home to flatten the curve of covid-19. We all found our inner flexibility, even those who before might have been rigid and set in their ways, refusing to accept or adapt to change.
Just about everyone learned to use the technology that allowed us to connect virtually, which was the closest in proximity we could get at the time. A new world was born with new ways of being established. The tech-challenged asked for help and learned how to do what previously seemed impossible to them. We adjusted, adapted, and entered a world of discovery with curiosity and wonder. We knew that we could do anything for 14 days. We didn’t realize that this new way of being would be the way of life for over a year.
We can’t hear you, you’re muted, face mask required, wash your hands, and social distancing is a small sampling of what became common phrases used daily by everyone.
Reflecting on the way we adjusted inspires me. If we can make changes like that so quickly, maybe it’s possible to swiftly transform our belief systems, too, propelling racial justice and equality forward in an instant.
I believe that we are souls with bodies. Each of us has landed in the body temple we are in for a finite amount of time. Let’s spend more time exploring our inner realm, connecting with the Divine. When we move from identifying with creation to the source of all creation, we merge with the immutable power and presence of Divine Love.
It’s a change in mindset that allows us to move from victim consciousness to victor consciousness. A place to truly get and believe that yes, I am as God created me, in the light, in the love, in the glory. No longer thinking the world is happening to you, now you understand that you are co-creating with the Divine, building the life of your dreams.
Navigating the mystical realm of heaven within, it becomes clear you are one with this glorious Divine Love and have been all the time.
You understand you have a purpose on this planet, and you begin to live out that purpose with great jubilation.
Step out of your comfort zone and let yourself grow. The world needs your awakened presence now more than ever. Step up and into your magnificent, radiant self and be who you came here to be!
And so it is.
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
April 15, 2021
On the spiritual path of becoming more of who we are, which is becoming more ourselves, we experience many transformations. Even if you’re not on a spiritual path, you have transformed many times and will do so many more to come.
Some kick and scream along their path to transformation, deny the need for things to change, resist transformation when faced with it, and continue along the path of denial even as the shift occurs! Something new has already emerged, yet they cling to the old way and refuse to let go. In the letting go, infinite possibility and unlimited potentiality are revealed.
Human life is currently transient, meaning that our bodies are all passing by like clouds in the sky. I believe our souls go on for all eternity. The body, however, can only go on for a finite amount of time. When the body can no longer house the soul, the soul leaves it, returning to the light. When it’s time, the soul comes into form again, to wherever it’s uniquely called.
Since we humans are continually becoming more of ourselves, change is inevitable. Rather than resist change, let’s embrace it, welcome it with enthusiasm and curiosity.
Individuals often fear change because one must let go of what’s known and familiar or comfortable to leap into the unknown with faith. It’s not the change that is disturbing; it’s the fear of the unknown and the identification with that fear that keeps them stuck. We forget that the unknown is the Great Mystery, The Thing Itself, Spirit, Divine. Let’s lean into Spirit with calm assurance and allow It to lead the way. As you lean into it, you let go of your identification with fear and embrace unlimited possibility and infinite potentiality.
What comes with the fear of the unknown are mindsets like what if it doesn’t work out, what if it all goes wrong, I can’t see how it will work, and I can’t do it. Ultimately this is a lack of trust in the God of your understanding. I say get a bigger God, please. Then watch the good pour forth into your life with great magnitude, and blessings abound.
On Geneva lake in Switzerland, there are more than seventy different types of wind. When there is very little wind, the sailors scan the still water, searching for ripples. When located, the skipper changes direction and heads to the disturbance in the water. The sails fill up, and the boat receives the power needed to sail ahead. Those who are successful in locating the water movement reach their destination and complete the race. They have embraced the changing winds. Imagine if you were to approach changes in your life with this same desire and determination.
Let’s be like those sailors and embrace the changing winds upon us. Lean into the God of your understanding for the comfort, strength, and courage to proceed. What if it’s easy?
And so it is.