The animation film, Wild Robot, (out right now in the cinemas and highly recommended) portrays this idea beautifully. There are some powerful messages in the story line: We are more than our programming. Kindness brings communities together. Our sense of Self, our divinity, is found and lived through our hearts.

The film reflects how a robot went from, ‘I have not been programmed to do this’, to bringing a whole community together. The questions that arise for me, and I suggest for all of us are: 

- Where and how do I limit myself in my thinking and speaking? 
- Do I respond with kindness to myself, my community and my world? 
- How can I more fully connect into my heart centre and reveal the inner splendour that is my True Self? 

These important questions are worth reflecting on. Not with judgement and the ‘I am only human, don’t blame me’ response, but with compassion, understanding and wisdom. Enquiry work, looking into who and what we really are – spiritual beings living in a spiritual universe – one with ALL and part of something so much greater than ourselves, is a powerful investment of our time. Spending time in silence with God as Good without an opposite enhances and blesses all of us.

Ephesians 5:14 invites us: “Sleeper awake! Rise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you.”

This Christ light, as our true identity beyond the ‘I am only human programming’, is not to shy away from or hide from; and not to claim from an egoic perspective. Instead, we are invited to recognise, with humility, this light is the true light within everyone, waiting to be revealed as our inner splendour. When we begin to do this, there is a flood of heart energy: compassion, kindness and wisdom. We find we can respond to ourselves and our world in a way that is beyond our ‘only human’ programming, because it is our spirit, already within, expressing through and as us. Jesus lived this way. Ghandi and others, live this way. We can, too.

When the leaf is freed to the wind – that is not the end. Wherever it lands, if it is harvested, eaten or decays, it provides food, life or nourishment for potential in the soil. It undergoes a transformation. It becomes something else.
 
Removing our worries from the forefront of our minds might give us sense of space, but transformation from pain to healing, anger to forgiveness, fear to love, needs to happen to complete the cycle. So when we close our eyes and exhale, returning our fears, our anger, our pain to the Earth. Let us remember, to be brave.
 
We may not know what exactly will happen when we let go of something we have held on to for so long. But we must trust, like the leaf, that we will end up where we need to be. 

Stefanie Bridges
Unity Administrator

It can be holding the space of affirmative prayer, for all those who reach out to us at Silent Unity, and all whom I hold in prayer. When I pray, I know my 'work' is to hold the space to know God as love, life, joy, peace, etc. is here, present and working through them and me. Then I can let go – I have nothing to do other than know – God is here as ultimate goodness expressed.
 
In each instance, I am holding the space for God as Divine Heart and Mind, to be felt and known in, through and as me and you. (I write about this a lot because I have to practice it a lot!) In taking time to become still, centred and present, my busy, critical mind feels safe: now it can quieten down enabling peace, love, joy, etc. to become our connected reality.
 
Recently, I realised that I have learnt, from my dear mother, to respond critically when under stress. Mum uses it as a coping mechanism to bring more control into her life as, like most of us, she was not taught to recognise her needs and feelings, let alone express them in a peaceful way. Instead, we often get resentful, critical and stressed. When I respond this way, other people then struggle to respond authentically and peacefully.
 
This realisation helped me understand my mum better. It also helped me realise this reaction was not me – it was a learned response from my mother. My authentic self is calm, wise, loving and can express needs and feelings without being angry or critical. It was a huge realisation for me. In saying, ‘this is not me’ – I have made space for my authentic self to shine. I have apologised to my husband, to Paul, for all the times I have been critical of him, often without realising what I was saying, and asked for his understanding as I learn and practice a new response. This is setting me free to let my inner light shine more brightly, experience the freedom this brings, and be present more authentically to those around me.
 
I invite all of us to hold the space for God – let love, wisdom and understanding into your body, mind and heart. As we do this, we are changed and life around us changes. In the midst of all we are seeing on the news and around us – let us hold the space for God.
 
Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

So instead of thinking you are a human being and that is it; instead of thinking you are a spiritual being having human experiences; how about opening into the idea, and experience, that you are a spiritual being, living in a spiritual universe, and as spirit – you express the love that you are. “I express the love that I AM.”

It does mean being vulnerable – being open – sometimes feeling into that which is not love, to witness it being dissolved, so that the Love, underneath the pain and discomfort, shines through. When we lean into the discomfort, and are simply present to it without the critical mind, it really does dissolve – for we have made space for God, God as Love and Love is healing us now. Further, this Love is so powerful, we are transformed. We are made new.

Have you felt God's incredible love for you? I invite you to open into the experience: "God as Love is the truth of me." Feel it. Know it. Begin to claim this as your truth and surrender into Love. Let Love dissolve the walls of doubt and fear. Then, as we view the world and all that we see happening around us, we can all come together and hold the vision of Love healing each mind and heart, returning us to peace.

Join me on the journey – open to Love and know yourself as the Love you are.

“You are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22

Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

As always I go back to … breathe … relax … let go … and know God as Pure Beingness is my energy too. It is through practising the presence, coming back to my heart-centre and becoming still, that always brings me back to peace. I may rant and moan for a moment, but then I can laugh and let it go.

To deeply experience Grace, this for me, has become my practice. It means that I can witness grace in the small and big events when they happen, as I am more present to the moment.

Recently, I was not concentrating when using a sharp knife to cut some very hard cheese. My emotions were a bit unfocused, the knife slipped and it cut into my nail and finger. Straight away, I realised that grace had been at work as this could have been so much worse. My nail took the brunt of the cut rather than my finger. I had the best cream to help the wound heal and my nail is growing out.
​
It might seem like a small thing – but Grace is an experience we all have. I invite you to take time to see the blessings in your life as an experience of Grace.

Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK