Darkness descending (11.30.14)

Good morning. Happy Sunday!


Do we live in love or fear? Do we live in separatism or in unity? Do we value people or stuff? Is it our ego or our higher self that guides us? Something to consider as we spend more cold days inside, hopefully taking some time to meditate on who we are.


There is an air of desperation descending over the planet like a soft, dark cloak. I feel it in subtle ways as I interact with individuals and realize that nothing can come between people and protecting their own. Evolutionarily speaking, that is perfectly normal as we tend to subconsciously strive to do anything possible to get our DNA into the future. People appear to be in the process of forming clans or tribes, which in fact may be the only way to survive the coming dark times. This is, however, going against the norms of socialization that has been the predominant way of life at least in the United States for the past 60 or so years. The celebrated nuclear family is falling apart in many cases and giving way to people who either spend their lives primarily alone or people who create new "families" through friendship and extended family relations.

It may very well be these extended groups of close knit people that will be able to work together in survival mode as the economic collapse continues. This is great, and if these tribes could then work with other tribes in a system of reciprocity, we might just make it (if the earth doesn't heat up enough to kill all life).

But what happens when you don't find your tribe? What happens if your clan is more about hate than love? There is a lot of isolation and separatism happening in the modern world. Why?

Our country is dividing along racial lines over the Ferguson issue. (Maybe this line has always been there.) Or perhaps the dividing line is cops versus the rest of the public. There is no doubt (except to those who identify with the police) that the militarization of the police and the incidents of police brutality, which are on the rise, is creating a chasm of division in our culture that is resulting in violent outbursts of fear and righteousness.

This fear is causing people to arm themselves against each other, against opposite ideas. Everyone seems to need a gun to protect themselves from the "others."

There is also a division of the have and have nots. And that division is getting larger. There is certainly a small portion of our world that has most of the money, and in fact, they influence and "control" most everything else, including the militarized police.

But, that attitude, trickles down into the rest of the world, where people still believe that if they acquire more, they will somehow be able to reach the levels of power and respect they see those with the money have. It is subtle. And most people would deny that they participate in this mindset. Some people in fact have stepped out of this system to live with independent ideas (Buddhist monks for example), but this is not the norm or the thinking of the mainstream. So, you have something I don't, and perhaps I want that thing too (let's use the common example of food), but you are only going to share a little, or none, because you have to protect your own. You begin to defend your food with violent means (guns) if necessary, and hoard more and more to make sure you and your "clan" survive as the world gets crazier and crazier. After all, why should you share?

Those who have a little bit more than those who don't start judging those without as being lazy and worthless and.... Meanwhile, those who don't have start judging those who do as being selfish and greedy and....

The division grows. The anger grows. The violence grows.

This is what our country, the United States of America is coming to. We have a lot of corrupt systems who are mostly for profit. Violence is a means to an end. The government we trust to help those without is also so corrupt that, in fact, they have turned into for profit entities funded by the higher ups (the 1%) who control them. There are quotas with dollar values placed on certain people, although these organizations would be quick to deny such. Think prison or human services child protective agencies. And some of those people get killed as a result of being forced, perhaps violently, into these systems designed to make our society a better place.

The division grows.

Some people have accused me of being angry, of my energy changing, and I agree that this has indeed occurred as the holidays set in. It happens every year as I see people step outside of themselves in the name of consumerist holidays to shop and shop, regardless of their own personal impact on the planet, or humanity as a whole. Because it comes back to the "clan" or taking care of our own. And violence seems to be the norm as people defend their right to defend. I feel a lot of frustration as I watch these divisions grow.

Unfortunately, we have to look at the bigger picture here, which most people are too blinded by the pretty lights and chasing of things to even notice.

All lives do matter, regardless of age, race, gender, economic worth, or whatever other divisions we have come up with to keep humanity separated. The isolation must end. We must unite as One.

The dark times are upon us now. Not only as we suffer through short, cold days, but as we look around us and see what humanity has come to. There are many divisions among the people, and they are growing.

There is fear, which most people are living in, and there is love, which most people aspire to but can't quite shed the fear enough to get there. I am no different. I struggle on a daily basis to remember that all people are a part to the Whole, that all people are a reflection of me. This mundane life I live does not lead itself to being spiritually aware all of the time. Ego exists and ego thrives on separation and fear.

As I try to protect my children from the insanity around me, at the same time I know it is futile. As I try to find my tribe of like minded people, I realize without global cooperation it is a lost cause. We will never be able to overcome the fear of the masses. This is the dark shadow that is settling around our Mother Earth like a second skin. It is this fear that will destroy us and the planet we live on. Fear.

So, as we struggle through another year of consumerist driven holidays, let us try to remember that we are more than the ego, more than our stuff, more than a human. We are spiritual beings, and when we release our ego driven fear, we just might recognize the spirit within that other person, even that misguided human who stands before us with a gun, so possessed by their own fear, that they are willing to kill us. Inside somewhere is the spirit that is a part of us. We are all One. Some of us just can't see it yet.

I renounce the fear. Every single day, I begin again, because it is a spiritual journey, and as I step away from fear and ego, my heart opens a little bit more and is able to express love out into the world. It is love that heals individual souls and will ultimately heal the planet. Love. We have to let go of the fear, in spite of the cruelty of individuals and the cruelty of groups. We have to learn to love. As a HUMAN RACE we have to make love our source of energy and our exchange. Love is the answer.

Love to all.

~Rev. Kerry

Love (9.7.14)

Good morning. Happy Sunday.

Love to all.

The energy of the Universe is love. Love is the currency that binds All together.

Love should be expressed. When real, unconditional, spiritual love finds expression, joy is born and the heart and soul sing.

There is nothing wrong with the natural, physical expression of love between consenting people of legal age. It is not our business to judge what lovers do behind closed doors, for it is their personal and private expression of love for one another.

The mental and spiritual expression of love lends itself to prayer, to healing and to a divine relationship with self, with Nature and with Source.

Love flows through the Universe and into the human body through channels which lead to the energy center, the heart. Love also flows outward from an individual through the same channels. The heart is the epicenter of this energy, not the brain, as was once thought. If love is blocked and not allowed to flow through the energy channels of the body and out into expression, illnesses within the body and mind may occur.

If love is allowed to flow freely between beings as well as into the world, a harmonious energy is achieved. Equilibrium results.

The plant thrives under the devoted loving attendance of its caregiver, be that human or Nature.

The human also thrives when love is directed toward them through acts of compassion and kindness.

As we express love, love returns to us threefold. Our lives gain meaning and joy through the giving and receiving of love.

Acts of love must be appropriate for both the giver and receiver, otherwise the love may prove to be misguided or misdirected and result in discomfort and emotional pain for all involved.

We must learn what real spiritual love is and not be taken in by false acts of love which are really expressions of ego. The lustful person is caught up in pure ego and has mistaken acts of desire for real love. The controlling person who acts to protect themselves and/or others has lost sight of real, unconditional and spiritual love. There are endless examples, to be sure, of individuals, or even groups of people, who are mistaken in their interpretation and expression of love.

Love does not control or contain. It guides and nurtures, allowing exponential growth as the energy is replicated and returned.

Love heals. Let us all create more love in our lives. Give and receive.

Love to all.

~Rev. Kerry

What???? 8.31.14

Good morning. Happy Sunday.

Peace. Love. Practice tolerance for one another.

We are all One.

Mother Earth cries as we kill each other, as we destroy all of her children, as we rape her and take from her over and over again.

What are these "resources" that are more important than life?

We humans are energy gluttons, feeding until there is no more. Killing for whatever we can get our hands on. Feed the energy machine. Feed the electronics that make the world go round. Do they? Do they really?

For what would we do without our video games, teaching our children that violence is acceptable? What would we do without our "entertainment"-- the horror and violent films and novels that we can never get enough of? The sex, the hate, the killing, the consumerism, the us against them?

Who are we without our labels?

The world is our mirror. Do we like what we see? It is a reflection of who we are. Primal, unevolved, lustful, savage, hateful, killing, competitive beasts.

We only get more of what we focus on. More hate. More war. More violence. More judgment. More killing. More fear. More separation.

But enough already. The Spirits are tired of the same old same old.

Today.

Today I will focus on love. Today I will practice forgiveness. Today I will tolerate those who are different from me. Today I will cry for ALL children lost in war and senseless killing. Today I will feel sadness for the lost souls who did not know better--who perpetuated the violence in their ignorance of love.

Today I will embrace my brother, my sister, that person who looks different, who believes different, who is me in disguise.

Today I will consume less. I will turn off the TV-- mindnumbing, brainwashing machine of destruction that teaches it is okay to kill, to fear, to hate.

Today I will practice silence in the arms of my Mother Nature and let her love wash over me, cleansing the American Culture from my pores.

Today I will reach for Father Sky and listen as he guides me to my future. I will release the past, cut the cords to those who no longer live with my soul and walk forward into healing.

Today I will observe the world around me with my mouth shut and my mind open. There will be no judgment, there will only be what is.

Today I will live in love and joy, peace and harmony with All That Is.

For today is a choice. This is what I choose. Now.

Love to all.

~Rev. Kerry

Love and conflict (12.29.13)

Good morning. Happy Sunday!

This morning I'd like to talk about love and conflict.

Love is the foundation of everything and the glue that holds the Universe together. Conflict tears it all apart.

Love is all we have left when we shed the constraints of our Ego world. There seems to be a lot of conflict (and power struggle) in a world dominated by Ego. Ego thrives on separation and Spirit is pure love. To connect to Spirit we can practice acts of love and kindness, remembering that we are all ONE. If we are all One, all a part of each other, then the power struggles fade away and Ego loses itself in pure love.

As we try to raise our vibration to a higher frequency, we will find it easier as we begin to release our Ego self that tries so hard to dominate and maintain the status quo. Ego would like for us to react and retaliate when others around us are treating us negatively. Ego is only trying to protect us and as a result, we often find our self in a fight or flight mentality. Instead we should remain calm and remember that when we react, we are allowing Ego to be in control. Conflict is an illusion. We are fighting our self.

If we listen to our Higher Self, we know that conflict is not what we want. How can it be when Spirit is pure love? We don't really want to hurt our self, which is what we do we we hurt others.

To avoid and resolve conflict before it begins, we must listen to Spirit instead of Ego. This is not easy, and in fact is very difficult in the heat of the moment.

When I find myself angry, it seems like the last thing I want to do is love my "enemy." No, my Ego often rules the moment and I find my Higher Self sitting on the sidelines, watching.  After the Ego tantrum, my rational self returns and tries hard to clean up the fallout created by my reactionary Ego moment. No one wins. No ONE.

Instead, as we progress on our Spiritual journey, we must train our self, and this means our Ego, to practice love in the face of conflict. If our Higher Self is in control, then that is wonderful and we should not react at all, but if instead, our Ego is still running the show, then we have to tame it and teach it to react with kindness instead of anger and more negativity. This becomes easier the more we do it.

The Ego part of our self is like a child that feels threatened by almost everything. If we can allow our Higher Self to guide our Ego with love, then perhaps we can diffuse conflict and have a more amenable outcome to most negative situations that arise.

In most conflicts, we can choose kindness instead of reacting with the same negativity that is being thrown at us. If we see the Wholeness of our self, we realize that somehow the negativity we are experiencing is a reflection of some part of our self that is hurting and crying out for love. Feed the love and not the anger. Love thyself.

This is certainly easier in theory than in practice in a world that promotes separatism and feeds the Ego mentality. But we have to try. If we want to change our world (and our lives) to be one of peace, love and kindness, then that is what we must practice. We must become what we want our lives to reflect.

Love to all.

~Rev. Kerry

Cabin Fever (12.8.13)

Good morning. Happy Sunday!

It is cold out there! So much of the country is in the midst of a winter storm with very cold temperatures. The most important thing now is to keep warm and make sure you have enough provisions to get through these cold, winter days. It is also vital that we take care of our mental and spiritual selves.

Some of us enjoy the winter weather, and use our time to play in the snow, and that's wonderful. But some of us find ourselves fighting a sour mood that comes in with the cold.

While, for some of us, it seems like it will never end, be assured, this too shall pass and soon we will be embracing the warm winds of Spring.

The cold, and our bad moods, may seem overwhelming, but we have to remember to keep positive thoughts in our minds and warm, positive visions in our heads as we go about our days. We can use this time to strengthen ourselves through meditation practice, through learning new things and even by reading mind opening books. We might try to finish indoor projects we never got around to or begin something entirely new. It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be sucked into the negative thinking that tends to come with the freezing temperatures. Instead, we can use this time to expand our knowledge and our awareness.

Some of us may be suffering from "cabin fever," seemingly stuck in our homes as the snow blows outside. Reach out and make connections. Call an old friend and catch up, write a letter to a relative you haven't seen for a while, invite your neighbors into your home and share a warm meal, but try to stay connected to others. If you can get out, you might take a class somewhere and meet new people. You can take online classes too, and most have chat rooms to connect to other students.

We can also use this time to explore and strengthen our family relationships. Spend a little more time with your spouse and/or your children and share the love in your heart. Your family may consist of friends and pets, and that's okay too. All of life is your family. Spend time with them and share good feelings. Cuddle up and stay warm and enjoy some quality time with the beings you love.

As the cold wind blows and the snow flies, and the temperatures drop, we can still warm our spiritual selves by sharing the love in our hearts, and connecting to life around us. We are all One, and we are never really alone. It is important to remember that each of us is connected to the rest. Show gratitude for that connection and nurture yourself and others through expressions of love.

Stay warm.

Love to all.

~Rev. Kerry

Compassion (9.22.13)

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday was Global Peace Day, so today, I wanted to talk about compassion.

Not only should we express compassion for all of our fellow human beings around the globe, but also for ourselves, which I feel is often overlooked. It is through our compassion for our self first, and then for others, that we find peace within, and then outside of our self in the world around us. This is how true peace is born.

Often we find it easier to bestow kindness and compassion on someone else, as we ignore our own personal need for kindness and compassion, at least from our self. We certainly do notice when people treat us harshly, and perhaps we react quickly with a snide comment or other unkind behavior. However, if we are seeking peace in our lives, it would do us well not to react to people who are treating us negatively, but to counter any and all negative or unkind behaviors with love and compassion and kindness instead.

We've all heard how a person in pain expresses more pain in the world around him or her. It is this person who needs the most love. We certainly can do our part to send every single person we encounter some positive energy, instead of reinforcing the negativity with more negativity. (Remember that like attracts like.)

But what about how we treat ourselves?

Most of us have a negative voice in our head that might tell us we are not good enough or successful enough or whatever. We may even sabotage things in our own life to ensure our own unhappiness. Why would we do this? What's going on?

A person full of pain expresses more pain in the world around them. Why would it be different within our self? If we are talking bad to our self, or suffer from a low self-image, it would seem that somewhere within there is a person who is in pain, whether that be the little child we once were, or an older, but still hurt, version of us. Somewhere in our lives, something must have occurred that caused such great pain that we then turned that pain inward through our negative self-talk. Sometimes we even sabotage the things that seem to be going well in our lives.

Now it is time to forgive, if we can, and that means forgiving our self for anything we may have done in the past that we are not happy about. Stop judging that event and release it. We need to feel some compassion for that person who experienced something painful or traumatic. We certainly would if that person were a friend, or even a stranger we see on the local news. Why not show the same compassion for ourselves?

It is time to practice love and kindness, not only in relation to everyone in our lives and on the entire planet, but also, and most importantly to our self.  We have to learn to love that hurt person inside, and feel some compassion for what they have been through. After all, it is all in the past, and that person is someone different from who we are now.  We have to shower that person with love, showing our compassion for what they have been through. Isn't that what we do when our family members are having a rough time? Do we not consider our self part of our own family?

We are all one. Inside, outside, it's really all the same. We are all one huge, big family. If we see someone who is in pain, we extend love, and their pain will be lessened. So let us feel compassion for those around us, and let us feel compassion for ourselves too. We are only human. All people make mistakes. The great thing is we can learn so much from our mistakes, enough that perhaps we don't even have to call them mistakes anymore, but rather, learning opportunities.

This week, let's take some time out to give ourselves some one on one time, and spend our quality time expressing love and compassion for our selves. Let's all do something we love, meditate, get out into nature, take a long soak or sauna, and whatever we choose to do, let's do it with the intention of giving and receiving self-love. The more we love ourselves, the better the world looks, both inside and outside.

~Rev. Kerry