One year of blogging!!

Actually it has been one year and one month..... and it is wonderful getting to know my way around cyber space and connecting with you all.

HOWEVER, there is much more I want to do, so for the next few weeks I will away from my post as a blogger and will be focussing on doing two things:

1. Keeping up with my practice - I'll continue to take calls in person, via internet and phone. Blog or no blog, you can still contact me.
2. Updating my site and blog.

Please come back and visit after November 14th!



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Pictures

Spiritual resource to share:

good news all around

I've been keeping a running list of sites that report the often unreported - the good news. This is news about people's benevolence, progress, and breakthroughs. In this list, you'll find stories about how kitchen grease is being used as car fuel, how muppets are teaching children a lesson in land mines, how to shop to support AIDS research and how to understand the freeing force of gratitude.

The world is a good place. Love, in all its various forms, is what makes life worth living. We swim in this stuff and are nurtured and emboldened by all those things that are GOOD.

• Good news from Gratefulness.org
• Good Magazine
• Good News Network International
• And here is just one of the millions of ways to do some innovative good by becoming an international financier: KIVA
  

And in a category of its own, The Christian Science Monitor. It is not only good news, but presents all the news - devoid of sensationalism but alert to the roots of healing that are possible in even the most dire of all sitations. Its mission "to injure no man but to bless all mankind" takes no naive or one sided view of the world, but faces it square on with integrity, balance and thoroughness. No wonder it has won seven Pulitzers!

Take a look around you. There is so much good, and so much we can do to contribute to that good. And finally, a Bible lesson site for Thanksgiving. Mary Baker Eddy asks:

Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more
than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.

Check out this spirituality.com's Thanksgiving Bible lesson -- all about giving thanks.

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How we can be safe

This one is for the papers

The fatal school shooting last week in Cazenovia, Wisconsin is now added to similar tragedies in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Canada. Such incidents bring an outpouring of prayer and compassion not only to the victims, their families, loved ones and communities, but also to the troubled individuals who committed these crimes.

And it leaves us with questions. If these random acts of violence, unbridled anger and revenge are happening in our schools, is any place safe? Are we are doing all we can to protect our youth from such dangerous, random acts? Are we actively supporting all our young people, including those kids who feel so outcast, so isolated that they are motivated to commit these horrors?

Our bureaucracies and institutions are addressing this. And, as individuals who love our communities, we can do our part. We can monitor our own thoughts –how we relate to others, what we watch, how we play, how we work, how we react – to be sure we are contributing to an atmosphere of peace. Do we express love and kindness toward one another? Do we look out for one another? Peace is not dependent on location but on thought, and thought aligned with the presence of God, Love, can only express that which is loving and good.

A peaceful thought is open to mercy. In following the teachings of Christ Jesus, members of the Amish community are showing that forgiveness leads to healing, even in the face of overwhelming tragedy. As we read in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” A dictionary defines forgiveness as “sending away and rejecting the offense; that is, not imputing it to the offender.”

Prayer gives us the understanding of God’s ever-presence, bringing safety to our schools and compassionate support to those who are hurting. Prayer can provide a balm that heals grief of the families and loved ones of those killed and can even help the victimizers repent and reform.

Prayer enables us to see the power of right thinking and right acting and eliminates the fear that would say we can expect more of the same. It can make us more alert to the welfare of others and create stronger bonds of community. Alertness to the welfare of others thwarted the efforts of two teens who had extensive plans to bomb and terrorize a school in Green bay. An individual came forward to warn school officials. The vigilance of this person saved lives.

We can be spiritually alert. For example after one similar tragedy, some church members took it upon themselves to pray every time they passed a school. They acknowledged and affirmed that the school, its students and staff were protected, progressing and thriving. They replaced the drive-by shootings with drive-by prayers.

Everyone’s prayers are needed as we encourage our schools to maintain their rightful role as places of learning, growing and even healing. Our youth must feel safe, secure and most importantly, loved.






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Re: school shootings and our children's safety

Hello friends,

What I have done here is to collect some powerful tools for dealing with the chaos that would try to overtake us with the reports of recent school shootings. Consistent, confident prayer that affirms God's omnipotent love breaks the mesmerism this mindless hatred would try to spread. I hope you find some practical inspiration here.

Blogs from healers - spiritual ideas as tools for peace, comfort and reform

• Can we forgive? AND
• A spiritual response to bullying by Evan Mehlenbacher
• Safety at school - and everywhere else by Sarah Hyatt
• Prayer for safety in our schools by Stephanie Johnson
• Old hurts by Laura Matthews

Ideas on praying about school violence and attacks on youth

• spirituality.com ( type in word to search)
• spiritualityandpractice.com (type in word to search)
• Overcoming violence from the World Council of Churches
• Forgiveness - religious and spiritual views from Wikipedia (includes this quote from Dag Hammarskjöld “Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.” )

An analysis of violence:

• from The Christian Science Monitor "A pattern in rural school shootings: girls as targets"
  Monday's deadly shooting in Nickel Mines, Pa., was the fourth such incident in five weeks. By Gail Russell Chaddock and Mark Clayton
• from US Harris Poll on Domestic Violence

Peaceful schools, children who are safe and supported and the lessening of violence are possible. I draw some comfort from the wisdom of the Bible:

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." --II Corinthians

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." --Romans

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For more information, contact Kim or call her directly via skype!


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