Speaking of Spirit

  I am delighted today to have as a guest blogger, Michele Sammons . Michele is an inspirational author, spiritual teacher, and highly-attuned guide who works with clients worldwide helping them transform their lives through divine guidance. As an empath and intuitive, Michele’s light-hearted, joyful approach embraces her clients right where they are on their spiritual path and gently guides them to personal clarity and understanding. Michele is passionate about working with Spirit to uplift others while spreading love and joy along the way. Michele's book, " The Little Book of Big Knowing ," was a delight to read. Made up of short yet meaningful meditations, I found that many resonated with what I believe and understand about Spirit, Life, Death and all that exists in between. I highly recommend this book! Without further ado, let us delve into the thoughts that Michele shares so graciously with us today.  You are the Shining Star of Your Own Play   “All the world’s a st...

  “There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by material things alone.”   Adlai E. Stevenson, the renowned statesman and ambassador to the United Nations, had a deep spirituality. The quote above is as true today as it was when he first spoke it in his 1956 Democratic acceptance speech. The world still has a deep and unquenched spiritual hunger. Why?  I believe, as Stevenson did, that our priorities are in the wrong places. Too many of us are striving for a better life through material things. However, new cars, bigger houses, the latest technical gadgets and closets full of clothes cannot fill the emptiness in one’s soul. Since COVID, this emptiness has become more apparent due to the lack of things to occupy our minds.  Many of us have never sat alone with ourselves. How do we fill the emptiness? What can we do as we head into the eighth month of this pandemic?  For me, natural beauty of any kind fills my heart and soul ...

    Friday night, social media was flooded with comments, memorials and quotes from a gently fierce woman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As the news of her death from cancer spread around the world, people began asking questions like, "Can anything else go wrong in 2020?"  and making statements like, "Now, we are lost." But, I see it differently. Yes, my social justice, activist heart broke at the news that Justice Ginsburg was no longer with us on this physical plane. However, in an email to one of my daughters, I wrote something that inspired this post.  I wrote that with her death, I now knew what the disciples must have felt when they learned that Jesus had died.  A TZADDIK Not long after writing to my daughter, I read that "according to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness."  How perfect!  Justice Ginsburg absolutely embodied "great righteousness."  While my ...

  Today, I have the great honor and pleasure to share an interview I had with the multi-talented and multi-gifted Angela Yarber. Welcome, Angela! Being able to share your many talents with my readers, brings me great joy! To get us started, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?  Aloha! I’m Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber. I live on Hawai’i Island with my wife and two young children; here, we run a non-profit, the Tehom Center, which empowers marginalized women by teaching about revolution ary women through art, writing, retreats, and academic courses. I hold a Ph.D. in Art and Religion, and I’ve been both a Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a Professor of Divinity since 2006. For fourteen years, I was an ordained clergywoman and served churches as a pastor. I’ve published seven books addressing the intersections among the arts, gender/sexuality, and spirituality. Four of these books were listed in the top LGBTQ Religion Books by QSpirit. Finally, I’m a w...

 Entwined  (c)2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas   This is the Truth... All beings that draw breath on this planet are connected. We all come from the same Whole. We are diverse and ever-changing. We are Family - a dysfunctional family - but Family, nonetheless. Some of us have lost the insight of our connectedness. Some of us have become so mentally, emotionally, and spiritually sick that we can no longer remember who our true Parents are. Some of us have been so oppressed, abused, diseased, tortured, and forgotten that we live in constant pain, fear, and terror. Some of us enable the dysfunction. Some of us make excuses, find loopholes, look the other way. Some of us have nothing, yet understand the Truth. Some of us look evil in the eye, daily, yet understand the Truth. Some of us sacrifice everything for the Truth. Some of us see the Light within other beings and kindle their flickering spark of Truth. This is the Truth... You are Loved. You ...

Baby Cardinal Outside My Window (c) 2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas   "The older you get, the less sleep you need."  This maxim was quoted to me in my youth by many of my elderly family and friends as an explanation of why they would be "up with the birds." Thing is, I never believed it to be true since many of them took long afternoon naps!   That being the case, I find myself up with the birds today. The sun has hardly crested North Sugarloaf Mountain, and I am wide awake wondering why. After all, at 5:45 it is still fairly dark. The birds singing didn't wake me because I can't hear them until I put in my hearing aids.  So, why am I wide awake?   Some people believe that waking early is a call from Spirit to rise and commune with the Divine.  Not sure if this is so, but I do know that when I find myself up and about in the wee hours, I usually use the time to pray, to write and to appreciate Nature.    Even in the semi-lig...

Out from the Core  (c) 2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas After a Zoom exercise class that my daughter was leading, she commented on my core strength. "You know Mom, you have great core strength."  Without thinking, I quickly replied, "This house is built on rock, Baby. No storm is taking me down!"  We laughed, said our goodbyes, and went on with our day. However, that term - core strength -  kept buzzing in my mind. Just what does  core strength mean? Physically, core strength means that the muscles in your back, abdomen, and around your pelvis are strong. According to the Mayo Clinic, " Core exercises train the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen to work in harmony. This leads to better balance and stability, whether on the playing field or in daily activities. In fact, most sports and other physical activities depend on stable core muscles." In my late 60's, I am taking this as a good sign, but my mind kept wo...

(c) 2020 Butterfly by Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas The day I was ordained was one of those clear, warm late spring/early summer days that people remember with great fondness. My colleagues and I were waiting in the gorgeous library of All Soul's Church in New York waiting to process into the church sanctuary. Each of us was in various stages of reflection and preparation for the ritual that lay ahead of us.   I remember, as we walked down the aisle singing, "Here I Am Lord,"  thinking to myself, "Wow, Linda, you finally made it!"  After nearly 60 years of hearing the call, I was finally being recognized. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, I would become "real" in the course of the service. Walking down the aisle, looking into the eyes of my beloved and my cousins, who came to New York to be with me; meeting for a brief moment my dear soul sister, Maryam, who came to share the experience after two years of reading about my journey to ministry, gav...

The past week has been one where the images of hate and violence have once again filled the media.  One sentence caught in my heart.  As a mother, to hear a child, even an adult child, call out in pain and agony destroys something deep within. "Mama, I can't breathe...help me," were George Floyd's last words. His mother was deceased but mothers around the world heard his cry. Mothers around the world have felt that same searing pain at the sound of those words. Mothers around the world, who can still hold their children, are drawing them closer.  Mothers around the world, whose children are far from them, are praying for their safety. Mothers around the world are once again protesting against the insidious hate and violence that has taken too many of their children. Mothers around the world are banning together because they know deep down that where our hearts break, the Light shines through. To the Floyd family, I offer my humble prayers.  To the families...

Love by Kathleen Grieg Mothering can take many forms. Each of us - male or female - can mother.  How can this be, you may ask?   Let's look at the verb form of the word - to mother. The late Old English meaning was, "that which has given birth to anything ."  Then, around 1863, it began to be used to mean, "to take care of, to act as a mother." During this pandemic, we have all been challenged to "act as a mother," to each other and to ourselves.  These actions are what a mother would do for her child - protect, nurture, encourage. We have been asked to protect each other from this virus. This means wearing masks, as well as making them for those who do not have any. Protection also means staying several feet away from people, staying home and keeping everything sanitized. Nurturing comes from our creative acts. For example, the ingenious posts we share on social media - group sing-a-longs, videos of social distance dancing, challenges t...

The world is going into the fifth month of life with COVID 19. In most places, isolation is the new way of life. Phrases like "social distancing" and "quarantine" have become the buzz words of 2020. These words sound ominous, but perhaps we aren't looking at this from the best point of view. Isolation comes from the Latin root for "island." When we think about it, every continent is its own island - huge land masses that are floating, literally, on the Earth's surface. If one is out on the sea, an island can be a respite or a curse, which is why so many lighthouses were built on islands.  Staying with the metaphor of the lighthouse for a minute, let us consider what life was like living as the caretaker of a lighthouse. This was an important position back in the days before automated lights and electricity. The lighthouse keeper had to literally light the lamp and keep the light in good working order. The keeper also saved lives when storms...

At the beginning of this year, I found my Word of the Year.  The word was, "visit."  I never, at the time, realized how I would need to rethink the meaning of this word. At first thought, back in January, I was prepared to "practice" visiting via traveling to see those I had not seen in a long time. Today, in the face of the COVID-19 virus, this isn't happening.  Rethinking "visiting," I have come to see that to visit is more than being a presence in a room with others. When I have visited this past week, it has been over the phone, through the internet, by means of old-fashioned letters, and texts. In addition, I have visited with those who have become fearful and anxious on social media. We have shared our fears, our joys, and our most recent realizations.  Love, as I have always known, is the great healer. Sharing Love, doing Loving acts, speaking Loving words, all have the power to push fear away and allow for healing to grow.   

This past week has been the most difficult many of us have ever experienced. We are worried and fearful because of the constant threat of the COVID virus. Yet, in the face of fear and uncertainty, there have been many acts of selflessness and compassion. As the writer of Matthew says above, can worrying give you anything more in life?  Worry does nothing more than sap us of energy - energy that could be used to help ourselves and others.  Being worry-free does not mean we do not care or that we are unaware. Rather, being worry-free is the realization that something needs our attention, that we might be uncertain of what to do, but whether alone or together, we will face the challenges ahead. A Prayer for Our Time Masterful Physician of Life,  we come to You in this time, when fear lingers, like hungry animals on the outskirts of the forest. We come to You in this time, when uncertainty blows, like an icy wind that paralyzes everything it touche...

 Bray Beach, Ireland (c) 2014 LMN “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”  ~ Charles Dickens ~ When Dickens penned these words over 150 years ago, he was writing of the world he knew. However, today, this iconic text speaks volumes about the state of things today.   In the past few days, many of us have seen or heard of the best and worst of humans, governments, and leaders. We have seen people fighting over rolls of toilet paper at one moment, only to turn and see young people delivering food to shut-ins and the elderly.  The Light and Dark of these days has been quite visible to all.  There is much Wisdom to be found, but also much foolishness.  Humankind has heard the Truth as well as the ...

Beginning tomorrow Christians around the world will observe 40 days of reflections, sacrifice and prayer. This is the holy season of Lent - the time prior to the Feast of Easter.  Traditionally, followers would give something up for Lent - candy, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Over the years, what I have found is that "giving something up" isn't always what one would hope it would be. In addition, when people fail at their attempt to give up, they feel bad about themselves, which truly defeats the purpose of nurturing our spirits. Long ago, I began a tradition of "giving" during Lent.  Rather than looking at the cup half empty and giving up candy or something, I decided to be positive, to give to others - random acts of kindness. For example,  instead of buying that candy bar, one could put the money into a friend's pocket when he/she wasn't looking.  When my girls were young, we took the money spent on pizza and gave flowers anonymously to people in...