Minister's Highlights 

Unity of Monroe                                                      
The Courage to Imagine: I Am Creative
July 1, 2018

Before I begin my lesson today I wanted to say a little bit about the Power of Freedom. Today Canada celebrates Canada Day and we celebrate our Independence Day this Wednesday, July 4. I’ve been thinking a lot about the ideas of freedom especially in the light of all that is going on in our country and around the world. Freedom is one of those   things that when we don’t have it becomes a burning passion. Witness the passion of the revolution that fueled our country. When we do have freedom we often don’t think about it or take it for granted. We may even assume everyone experiences the same freedoms we’ve had. Sometimes we think that we are the blessed few that are free. According to several studies it is determined that 75% of countries across the globe are rated free or partly free with over 45% like us and Canada a free people. Freedom is also how we see ourselves and our fellow planetary beings. But how free am I if I hold antagonistic or unhealthy thoughts toward another person or people across this land or world? There are those now who wish simply to divide us all up into the least common denominator based on our differences, economically, socially, politically, in terms of our spiritual and religious traditions, in terms of how we look or what we believe only stoking our deeper fears instead of seeing and celebrating that which makes us all global citizens - our shared humanity, our shared sacredness. The phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” from one of the most profound documents that declared our freedom, needs to always be honored and held as a sacred document. While we may not have done so in previous centuries, especially with women and minorities - NOW we absolutely must uphold the rights of ALL. The form of how we express that equality may vary in manifestation because some of us have had the blessing of a head start in the race of life - but the truth is always that within ALL OF US is we are all created equal.

What helped to form our country so long ago were the courageous, imaginative minds that used the resources of their creative nature. As we continue our once-a-month look at The Courage to Imagine, just using that creative process within us brings us to the heart and soul of what it means to be a creative spirit. It’s knowing that it takes Courage to Imagine and then Know I AM CREATIVE. Like in a small-town newspaper office, where one of the editors was struggling to write a headline for the obituary of a woman who was noted for little besides a fondness for crossword puzzles. “What am I supposed to write,” the editor whined, “She liked puzzles?” Just then one of the copy editors, in a moment of creative inspiration piped up, “How about, ‘Crossword fan is now six down?'” Sometimes it takes being creative to come up with the right words or think of a new idea or a new exciting way to do something that we’ve never done before.

In Unity we teach about the Five Principles that assist us along our spiritual journey.  These five ideas are not the final say but are guides along the way to be used as jumping off points to further our growth. It is the third one that comes to mind which says: We are co-creators with God, creating our reality through thoughts held in mind.  Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind. If my thoughts focus on a loving kind world I attract into my life loving-kind people and experiences. If my thoughts behold hatred and inequity for the most part I am blind to seeing anything else. So do my own thoughts behold the creative abilities I have within? Affirming and knowing I Am Creative comes in having Courage to Imagine not just that we have a creative spirit but that  we are creative beings being creative. It is not just reserved for those who have changed the world, invented something or have something profound to say. Stop in this moment and focus on one thing this past week that may have affected you negatively. A disagreement you had with another, a thought you held about yourself that was less than healthy, a thought of lack in your life or in the life of another. Now using that courage within to imagine, call on yourself to create a new thought surrounding that situation. Think about it now and as we do so we begin to form a new creative entity. It may not change the situation outright but it changes how we approach it from this point on because we are the architects of our life.

We co-create our world colored by our own individual consciousness.  The creative part of us brings forth something which was not there before - like a child born from her mother’s womb - we birth new ideas into the manifest realm.  For example, before you had that new creative idea about your life, just a minute ago, there was NOT the idea of what you were going to do.  Subconsciously there may have been something percolating there but true creation comes out of that which before did not exist.  Our ideas and fully developed thoughts are born in the womb of our mind/heart just as a child is born in the dark spaces within the mother’s womb.  So you and I, and every planetary being are birthers bringing creativity into manifestation. The power of our co-creative mind is always at work in our lives and in the universe. I remember reading a study awhile back that nearly all children considered themselves as creative but for middle aged adults the percentage was around 10%.  So it is that sometime between those age ranges we lose our belief that we can and do create. It may also explain why many people lose their faith in a higher power because they have lost their faith in the power of the creative spirit within themselves. As many mystics would proclaim, when you cancel out your creative self you cancel out the belief in the power of God in you. I can’t get very far when I hold my creative spirit in abeyance because I didn’t create the next great thing. The next great creative thing is our next great creative thought as simple as it might be. We may even celebrate a new thought of how to get along with someone or how to think about something in a new way as claiming our creative nature. But as we are co-creators this is where it is important to effect a womb of life-affirming thought energy that promotes love, joy and harmony. Eric Butterworth wrote, “Thought is a creative process. You can become a creative thinker instead of a reactive thinker...it is your mind and you can think what you want to think.”

The hardened pessimist says that things are as they are and that one is blind to refuse to see what terrible things are going on. I had a friend who always said, I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Yes, but am I seeing them out of a consciousness that can only see a hurt and broken world. We all face challenges and experiences that will either bring us down or make it our finest hour. In the face of the oncoming battle for Britain, after France and other countries had fallen, Winston Churchill declared that when everything would be done the people would declare “This was their finest hour.” It is interesting and revealing that those who have gone through the fire of hell have overcome and created new life. The difficulties before them only served to further their life and that creative ideas spurred them forward. The poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley came when he was in a hospital racked with the pain of an incurable ailment, "I Am the master of my fate: I Am the captain of my soul."

I think about many of you and your own personal stories of some of the challenges you’ve come through and how creative choices made and direction sought have brought you up higher along your journey. You have brought forth out of seeming nothingness into manifestation your creative expression.  Everyday we are giving into this manifestation according to the thoughts we hold in mind which produce after their kind.  The words and wisdom of the Middle Ages mystic Meister Eckhart state: “What does God do all day long?  God gives birth.  From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.”  That which God births are the divine ideas that we are all privy to and create from Divine Mind. Think about that as an image of God and what we might call the Divine Feminine as God birthing into existence and we being the creative vessels to bring it forth. This will mean something different to each person from the teacher to the contractor to the retired and on.  

If you read the creation chapter in the book of Genesis, you will notice that the author(s) of that story tell of God creating by “letting.”  “Let there be light” and “Let” at every act of creation, and it was done!  Being a co-creator is about letting the imprisoned splendor within be made real and we do the same as we let Spirit come alive in us and as us. It is to bring forth into life itself out of that which did not exist except within the heart-mind of possibility.  It is recognizing that which already exists comes forth as we LET it happen.  This is where the Courage to Imagine comes forth. You want to be more free in your life, let it happen because it already does in you.  You want more peace in your world, let it happen cause it is you.  Whenever we wish to birth something into the realm of experience, or have to make an important choice, let it flow, let it happen, let’s give ourselves a chance. We can allow this creative process to come alive through us bringing forth guidance and light for it is a wellspring that is inexhaustible. Why do we need to do so? Because we all have more to do. Just check the pulse on your wrist or neck. If you have a pulse - you have a purpose ... and as we open our mind to this Creative Spirit, we will be compelled to do that which will lead us to that which will reveal to us our purpose, our success, our prosperity, our joy, and our bliss.

Don’t let anyone, especially YOU, put the kibosh on creativity. No one takes our right to affirm I AM CREATIVE unless we give him or her the keys to the car. There are too many dreams stifled because one person didn’t appreciate, listen to or understand the creative expression within.
May you find the deep peace of creation flowing in your spirit. May your senses awaken to the creative spark that lives in you. May you walk in beauty and seek to create beauty wherever you go. May you take the risk of discovering the divine within you and around you. And may the spirit of life bless you with courage and imagination as you live creatively with others by your side.

 
Unity of Monroe • 272 Britton Lane • P.O. Box 138 • Monroe, Ohio • 45050
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