Well … do you feel that there is a lot going on right now – in the UK and around the world? That life is speeding up; pushing you forward, seemingly chaotic, feeling unsure about the future? Perhaps you feel lost and struggling right now. Alternatively, you may feel alive and uplifted, knowing who you are and your role in life.

Either way, there is one thing guaranteed to support us each day – gratitude. Meister Eckhart, the great 14th C. Christian mystic, wrote, “The only two words we need to say in prayer are ‘thank you’”. Pause a moment … does this resonate with you?

Charles Fillmore, Unity co-founder, said: “Gratitude is a great mind magnet and when it is expressed from the spiritual standpoint it is powerfully augmented.”
What is this spiritual standpoint? It is the understanding and acceptance that, with God as our Source and supply, our good is here for us, even if we cannot see it, ready to fill our awareness and experience in a way that we can see and use.

Yet appreciation, gratitude, is more than mere words – it is a feeling. It is this feeling that is like a mighty magnet, drawing even more of universal good into our experience. Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla write in Unity’s The Quest, “Feelings are the catalyst and activate the powers which make the changes and do the work.”

Our part is to lift our thoughts away from the problems, demands, fears and distractions of this world, to connect with a deeper, abiding knowing of, as Jesus said, ‘The Father and I are one.’ From a deepening sense of Oneness, we are led forward together.
Gratitude helps us do this. We can always find at least one thing to feel grateful about. This feeling of gratitude begins to shift our minds and hearts to a deeper faith and trust. There is good here. This enables us to see more goodness around us, and experience within us.

Then, as we make this inner shift, we are able to support others and help them know that there is good here and even more good than we can imagine. Especially when we work together.

Right now on planet earth, we are being called to be better stewards of our planet. To take care of ourselves, each other, our climate and the bio-diversity that is so important in a balanced and healthy world. Yet we can only really do this when we feel connected to something greater than ourselves that is uniting us and working through all of us.

Gratitude will do this. Let us find something different to be grateful for every day through November. Feel into the joy and sense of appreciation and upliftment this encourages. Perhaps journal, with art work, your blessings and joy. (Join our class.) Watch for more things to be grateful for in your life, and know you are being the catalyst for someone else to feel grateful and experience their good.

Together, as we share our abilities, time and gifts with others around us, we will find a way to help bring back balance and harmony in our world. We will support each other in using less, helping more and finding so much joy in doing this, that our gratitude overflows.

This is how life is changed. Let us be the change we wish to seek. Let gratitude be the tool to get us there.

How do you respond to this statement? Is it yes, in theory that is great but … Or, … I will when such and such has happened … We want to say yes, but we often put all sorts of things in the way of this first.

It is the same with the perfect activity of God working in, through and as us. We may say yes to the idea of it, but find it hard actually to do it: To say ‘Yes’ to God.

As I reflect on this, I believe it is because we find it hard to trust that God is here for our good. At some point, the idea was put into our minds that yes, God will love us ... when we are perfect. If I am a good girl, or good boy, or good person, you will love me. It is a thought that always keeps us striving for something that feels out of reach. 

Yet Scripture tells us repeatedly, that even though we make mistakes, God is always here for us as our good. (Genesis 50:20, Deuteronomy 1:25, 2 Samuel 7:28, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Philippians 2:13, 1 Timothy 4:4 and more.)

So, let us make the experience of ‘God as good’ real in our lives. Let us say ‘Yes!’ to God as our good. For this is saying yes to life and everything that is here for us abundantly, when we seek to experience the kingdom of God. (Mt. 6:33)

This is the invitation this week. Decide to say yes to God as good, letting go of what you think the solution or action needs to be, and witnessing how God as good guides you, opens doors for you that you did not even know where there. Especially when seeking to know and experience good here for everyone, not just the select few.

For me, this is being born again. This is realising true joy, peace, love, abundance. The invitation, in every moment, is to say yes to God, yes to life. So let’s do it, together.

I would love to hear how saying yes to God, yes to life, brings forth new good for you. Comment below with your experiences and let me know if you would like them shared for others to be inspired as well. 

Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

​Recently I woke up at 2.30am, and, unable to sleep, wrote the following words, inspired by a Richard Rohr book, Immortal Diamond.
Once more, my mind had engaged in its chatter – grabbing my attention now that I was quiet. I found myself unable to rest back into sleep. However, I also recognised that my mind (ego-self) was into self-attack mode. It sounds heavy, but the voice was saying; must do this better, work harder, express myself clearer, get all these jobs done etc. I realised that unconsciously I was making myself wrong, subtly but effectively. In fact it reminded me of comments I would get from some of my teachers at school – could do better! My mind is always telling me – you could do better. Phew. As if there is not enough going on without this subtle voice in my head, kicking off at night-time.
 
What I recognised, which was a blessing and release, was that when I allow this to happen, and focus on fixing my humanity (or someone else’s), I am not practising the silence; I am not focused on God as good. Yet this is the key to our awakening, or salvation.
 
When we focus on God within, through and as us, when we open our minds and hearts in silent awe and reverence, to the majesty and mystery of God, we are changed.
 
Instead of me trying to work harder, be clearer, kinder etc., I find I do this naturally and experience God as my source of clarity, confidence and ability.
 
It is good to be the best that we can be. However, when we strive, thinking ‘I have to fix me’, we are in the way of our goodness flowing. When we surrender into Divine Heart, into love and wisdom, we are uplifted, renewed, restored into our true nature, our Christ nature, and the good for everyone naturally flows. As my dear friend, Isabel used to say, ‘we are being done’!
 
Therefore, I encourage myself, and you, to stop trying to fix ourselves to be better. The ego-mind will keep us here forever. Instead, practice opening, softening and melting into God Mind/Heart. Allow yourself to make this inner divine connection and notice how you begin to respond. It is the pure activity of God in us, as us, that changes us.
 
Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

"When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state
of inner still alertness. You are present...”
- Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

​For this week’s Thought for the week we have selected a talk and meditation by Unity teacher Isabel Compton. Isabel sadly made her transition in August this year, and we share this recording in memory of Isabel with deep love and gratitude for all the joy and wisdom she shared in Unity and in her life.
 
In this talk titled ‘Going within’ and recorded at Unity Maidenhead in September 2019 Isabel explores stillness, meditation and presence in a range of ways.
 
Drawing from the book ‘Stillness Speaks by Eckhardt Tolle, the Japanese concept of ‘Satori’ translated as ‘awakening’ along with quotes from Unity teacher and co-founder Myrtle Fillmore.
The talk ends with a guided meditation to begin to experience a little of this sense of stillness
 
With love and blessing, 

Ruth Humphreys
Daily Word UK Editor 

Do you, like me, sometimes put a lot of mental pressure on yourself, or take on the cares of the world? It is all too easy to let this pressure take us over and then feel exhausted, especially if there is a lot going on in our lives, as there is for many of us right now.
 
However, when we let ourselves rest in the thought and feeling of I am enough and let the rest go, the ‘enough’ in us grows without pressure or force and Grace shines through.
 
Right now, whatever is happening in your life or around you, take time to surrender into peace, by easing into and through any turbulent thoughts or feelings, to land in the Grace and peace that is God as the Ground of Being, here, in your midst.
 
Daily Word put it beautifully recently: Fearful or anxious energy is like a lake’s choppy waves on a windy day. The serenity of my soul is like the water at depth that always remains calm and still.
 
The peace that passes all understanding is always here, underneath and within the activities of the world, when we look for it. For this peace lies within us. Thus the invitation is, with faith, move through the discomfort without identifying with it. Practice, I let go and let God, and God as Grace and peace will emerge. You are enough.
 
Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft,
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

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