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When we turn to the spiritual path, it may be driven by a desire to be perfect and have a perfect life, without problems or challenges. However, so often, we do this by making ourselves, or another, wrong.
For myself, I also recognise that my underlying, unconscious bias, is to be a people-pleaser. In wanting people to like me I need to be perfect and not make mistakes. Phew what a burden that is! Do you recognise this desire to be perfect as something you have had, or have now? And if so, how is this working for you? Perhaps you know someone who puts this pressure on themselves by making seemingly imperfections wrong. For me, this is not what life is about. My idea of perfect is going to be different to yours anyway. The statement, “Kimerie is perfectly imperfect” is a gentle reminder that the human part of me is not perfect – perhaps it was not even designed to be! For I learn through my challenges and so-called imperfections. (For that matter, who decided something was an imperfection?) When we can accept our ‘imperfect humanity’ without making it wrong, we are more able to connect with the beautiful, radiant potential that is our True Self, our Christ nature. This is already whole and perfect, unaffected by our human experiences. When we gently, and without criticism of our humanity, focus into our divinity, we find ourselves guided through the imperfections to a deeper experience of love and peace, life and healing. We make wise choices for ourselves and each other. I believe this acceptance will bring about greater harmony on the planet. For it creates a healing space for us to behold the divinity within. We are human and divine. Let us not make one aspect of ourselves wrong, for it stops us connecting with the aspect that is holy and pure. Can we let life be AND show up in the best way we can, without pressure or judgement, with our inner light and potential encouraging others to know the same for themselves? How do you want to show up this year? Perhaps laughing at our imperfections and delighting in our inner radiant self, present at the same time! Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft Director of Daily Word and Silent Unity UK January heralds the days getting longer. The bright sun, which hangs low in the sky, illuminates and brings crisp, clear, cool air, and clarity. As I stand looking on at the new year in front of me, I feel like I can take a breath. January is a gift. A doorway into a new start. I can choose now to inventory all my baggage and take with me only what I need. January’s namesake, the Roman God Janus, has two faces. One looking forward to the future and one looking back on the past. This special, sacred time is a transition. A cocoon. A free space to observe what has been, and to decide where I want to give my energy moving forward.
In Unity this month we have celebrated this energy of renewal with our yearly Burning Bowl ceremony. If you missed out on this, or perhaps you feel you have more to let go of, you can always create your own ritual. Sit with yourself. Take time to notice how you feel, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and discern the areas where you feel undernourished or overstimulated. Then ask Why? There may be blockages or beliefs, which once identified, may not be as “true” as they were in our subconscious. Once named, we can claim our power back, we can write it down and release it to God. Setting our own new intentions, instead of repeating the same experience we had last year. Travelling light is the theme of my January, I take with me hope and potential, and I release everything else. “Anything I cannot transform into something marvellous I let go.” – Anais Nin Stefanie Bridges Unity staff It is tempting to think of peace as the absence of conflict indeed, this is how dictionaries tend to define it. However, it is so much more than that. In John 14:27 Jesus is reported having said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” So, peace is something that was in Jesus that He passed on to his disciples. This means that, spiritually, peace is not an outcome it is something within; a power that we possess.
Revealing Word defines peace as ‘harmony and tranquillity derived from the awareness of the Christ consciousness’. And Matthew asserts in the beatitudes ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God’. To be a child of God means to take on the attributes of God or being ‘made in the likeness of God’. So, as I connect to the Christ consciousness, I become a channel of peace that flows through me and out to the world at large. We are all but one consciousness so, as that peace flows through me it also flows to the totality of consciousness and contributes to world peace. The absence of conflict will come when this is appreciated widely and practiced widely. In practical terms, which is what Unity is about, it means that instead of reacting negatively to situations or thinking badly of others, that I take the time to go within and allow the ‘peace that passeth all understanding’ to flow through me and as me. Personally, I find this challenging at times but, through a daily meditation and prayer practice I increasingly allow the Christ consciousness to flow and, equally importantly, not beat myself up when I don’t manage to meet my own expectations. You see, being frustrated or angry with myself is denying the opportunity for peace. So, I treat myself with love and compassion as well as attempting to do the same for others. I encourage all of us to find the space of peace within, especially when the temptation is to do the opposite. Let us be the peace that we want to see and thereby experience. Rev. Paul Mapletoft Unity Minister  This title came to me – love takes many forms – as I sat preparing for our January Burning Bowl service (see YouTube recording below in the newsletter or on the home page of our website.)
Love always comes into everything for me. Yet what do I mean by love? It is certainly not a wishy/washy feeling that means I let people walk all over me and have no say about my life. It doesn’t mean all taking and no giving either. Truly, Love, in all its forms, is always unconditionally given to be truly felt and received. So, what does love mean to me? It is about opening to the beauty, love, light, life that we call God and letting that become my very being, my own True nature. How powerful is that! It is about standing in my power and authority, but without causing harm to another. It is about being compassionate, kind and caring to myself and ALL life and nature and finding ways to live as loving kindness. It is about humility, letting go of pride and personal needs that must be fulfilled for me to be happy. It is about knowing, as Jesus knew, God and I are one, without limit or restriction of any kind. This was my personal focus for our January Burning Bowl service and is the focus of my life for this coming year. My affirmation: I am fully present to Love as our True nature. What does love mean to you? Does any of the above resonate with you? Is there another way you would express and experience love? I invite you to get still, reflect on Love in all its forms, and connect with how you want to experience Love this year, then go forth and do it. For you are made in the image and likeness of God, and anything you set your mind to do, you can achieve.  Can I invite us all to reflect on the brilliance of God in the world today by pausing from posting on social media for a day?
If the darkness of discouragement and pessimism has crept into our hearts, let us remember that the light of hope and optimism, found in Christ, can dispel it. We are powerful spiritual beings, equipped to overcome darkness because Christ within us and as us, is the everlasting light. “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light.” —Isaiah 60:19 Today, let us draw inspiration from the life of Joseph: You are called to protect God’s unborn purposes and promises in your life. Right now, there are aspects of God’s will yet to unfold in your journey—a promise to be fulfilled, a word to be realised, a ministry to be launched, a family member to be saved. These are divine purposes that remain unseen and unborn, and it is your responsibility to watch over them, nurturing them through prayer and faith, so that they may come to pass. Let’s stand firm in prayer and faith today, guarding the promises God has placed in our hearts. Josephine Powell Unity student  Sitting in meditation with others at our midday prayer service recently, I was reminded again about how much we do not know about our world, physical and spiritual. Yet how much we limit ourselves due to responding to what we see with just our physical eyes and senses.
There is so much that is amazing about our world. So much energy, life and potential to connect into and live. So much happening that we cannot ‘see’ yet when we get still, somehow, we ‘know’ is here. At the beginning of the new year, it is the perfect time to reconnect into the limitless, profound and pure energy that is available through all of us, to be ‘used’ in the very best way possible for everyone. Through our humanity, our humanness, we tap into our spirituality so we can merge the two, enabling us to experience the ‘oneness’ we write about all the time. This is the greatest expression we can live as a ‘child of God’ or a child of the universe. The invitation is that, instead of limiting ourselves and seeing only differences and separation, problems to fix or hide from, that we become open to the full potential that is here: the experience which goes beyond our human sight or understanding and connects us at depth. This is seeing from the inner eye or vision. Seeing through and beyond to the greater reality we already abide within. How about, this year, we practice seeing with our inner eye? Let us seek to connect, to discover a deeper reality, a deeper truth that unites us and will indeed, set us free. You may like to make this a focus for your new year and bring it with you to our Burning Bowl service this month, as we let go of the old through spiritual surrender and make space for the new, mighty energy, which we are forever one with. Rev. Kimerie Mapletoft Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK
My first response is to pray, holding all of us, everywhere, in prayers of support, guidance and healing. Bringing us together in One Vision of Life connected. It reminds me of the film, Avatar, which depicts the great might of the US military trying to destroy a world on another planet for monetary gain, and the native people connecting into the One Tree of Life that sustained them all.
My second response: What is my simple message that enables me to walk my truth and stand strong in my faith? In many ways, Donald Trump is an example of authority and power. Can I, can we, claim and fully know God-power, alive in us, through us and as us? Can I, can we, stand in our Truth and live from that Truth of community, working together with our neighbours, looking after our planet and environment, because of the Oneness I believe in? What actions can I take? How can I live my life through Divine authority and power? This is what Jesus did and he is our way-shower in Unity. It is a big ask – but perhaps this is the call right now. We stand in the Light of Truth and live it. Rev Kimerie Mapletoft Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK
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. |
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