A REAL BUCKET LIST

Now that I’m old and gray (but not quite in my rocker yet!) I look back on my life and think about things I wish I knew earlier. It would have made my life so much easier if I knew then what I know now. Here’s my list of things I wish I could turn back the hands of time to tell my younger self. Maybe it’s not too late for you.

1. You’re stronger than you think you are.
2. Mistakes teach you important lessons.  Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal.
3. 
   

   Cycling the Peruvian desert
   There is nothing to hold you back except you.
4. You can press forward long after you can’t.  It’s a matter of wanting it bad enough.
5. No matter how much progress you make there will always be the people who insist that whatever you’re trying to do is impossible.
6. You are limited only by your own imagination. Let it fly.
7. Perception is reality.
8. Your instincts can be trusted.
9. There is only one question to ask yourself: “What would you do if you were not afraid?”
10. It’s often hard to tell just how close you are to success.
11. The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake.
12. Never let success get to your head, and never let failure get to your heart.
13. You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.
14. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
15. Do what you love, not what you think you’re supposed to do.
16. Laughter is the best medicine for stress.  Laugh at yourself often.
17. If you want to feel rich, just count all the great things you have that money can’t buy.
18. Forgiving yourself is far more important than getting others to forgive you.
19. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, you’ll often find that you’re right.
20. Be nice to yourself.
21. For the most part, it doesn’t matter what people think.  Follow your own truth.
22. No education is wasted. Drink in as many new experiences as you can.
23. Making one person smile can change the world.
24. Don’t forget to enjoy your journey!
25. You never know how strong you really are until being strong is the only choice you have.
26. Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
27. You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
28. Crying doesn’t indicate that you’re weak.  It doesn’t always solve your problems either.
29. No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.
30. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
31. You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.
32. Give up worrying about what others think of you.
33. When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.
34. 
    

    I learned many life lessons on our 3-year family bike trip from Alaska to Argentina
    You have to accept that some things will never be yours, and learn to appreciate the things that are only yours.
35. As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”
36. Don’t be afraid to move out of your comfort zone.  Some of your best life experiences and opportunities will transpire only after you dare to lose.
37. Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go.
38. You’ll rarely be 100% sure it will work.  But you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work.
39. Don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future for too long.  Right now is life.  Live it.
40. No matter how cautiously you choose your words, someone will always twist them around and misinterpret what you say.  Just say what you need to say.
41. Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of good luck.
42. If you are passionate about something, pursue it, no matter what anyone else thinks.  That’s how dreams are achieved.
43. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
44. What lies before us and behind us are tiny matters when compared to what lies within us.
45. Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.
46. It’s not about getting a chance, it’s about taking a chance.
47. If it were easy everyone would do it.
48. Be vulnerable.
49. A problem is a chance for you to learn.
50. Regardless of the situation, life goes on.

Native American Code Of Ethics

Native American Code Of Ethics

Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often.
The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.
~
Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path.
Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem
from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
~
Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others
to make your path for you. It is your road, and
yours alone. Others may walk it with you,
but no one can walk it for you.
~
Treat the guests in your home with much consideration.
Serve them the best food, give them the best
bed and treat them with respect and honor.
~
Do not take what is not yours whether from
a person, a community,the wilderness or from a
culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
~
Respect all things that are placed upon
this earth – whether it be people or plant.
~
Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words.
Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them.
Allow each person the right to personal expression.
~
Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative
energy that you put out into the universe
will multiply when it returns to you.
~
All persons make mistakes.
And all mistakes can be forgiven.
~
Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind,
body and spirit. Practice optimism.
~
Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us.
They are part of your worldly family.
~
Children are the seeds of our future. Plant
love in their hearts and water them with
wisdom and life’s lessons. When they
are grown, give them space to grow.
~
Avoid hurting the hearts of others.
The poison of your pain will return to you.
~
Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the
test of one’s will within this universe.
~
Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual
self, Emotional self, and Physical self – all need
to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out
the body to strengthen the mind. Grow
rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
~
Make conscious decisions as to who
you will be and how you will react. Be
responsible for your own actions.
~
Respect the privacy and personal space of
others. Do not touch the personal property of
others – especially sacred and religious
objects. This is forbidden.
~
Be true to yourself first. You cannot
nurture and help others if you cannot
nurture and help yourself first.
~
Respect others religious beliefs.
Do not force your belief on others.
~
Share your good fortune with others.
Participate in charity.

_______

POLITICS IS NOT FUNNY - BUT THIS IS!

A little humor never hurt! If you are tired of politics and need a break. Watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BadLipReading?feature=watch

Are you missing spiritual oneness and discussions that connect you with God? If you missed a Sunday morning service at Chrysalis you are.

We have a small group and we know that every member counts. Everyone is welcome to hear truth, but few are motivated enough to recognize the magnetic quality of group worship.Your participation and contributions are deeply appreciated. Please make renewed effort to worship in spirit with the congregation at Chrysalis. Your presence will bring blessings for all.

Where Do You Find Connections to Spirit?

Here a an article from the Pleasant Valley Church in CA written by Rev. Lynn Chaplin-Noe.

Ministerial Musings
October, 2012
THE POWER OF NATURE'S INTENTION



Rev. Lynn Chaplin-Noe

It’s Autumn! And every Autumn, Winter, Spring, something within my husband and myself “drives” us to Yosemite! It’s where we truly worship. Wikpedia says, "Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship to give at its simplest worth to something." So that’s what we do in Yosemite. We devote our total consciousness toward our oneness with everything we see, touch, sense or feel. It heightens our awareness that we share DNA with all of it which includes the other reverent worshipers in human form. We experience our deepest appreciation for the Divine.
Here’s the thing about the power of Nature’s Intention. You and I and everything around us was intended into form by an intelligence that is not aware of itself but has a powerful intention within to create. That’s the creator, God. Therefore it’s in the creation’s nature to create too. That’s as simple as letting go and trusting. In the case of everything other than humans, trust isn’t even an issue. It’s their nature to intend. In Yosemite, we feel our connection to the Divine so strongly that trust is not an issue.

I give all my simplest worth to the water in Yosemite, that does not think to move, to spout, to be still, to gush with the power of a turbine! Water has within it the power of its nature to do all of that.
I feel worthy as I enjoy the changing leaves. The autumn leaves, although apparently relinquishing themselves kicking and screaming in colors of red and god, simply are fulfilling nature’s cycle. It’s their nature to do so. It’s nature’s intention that empowers every cell to let go. It’s their nature.
It’s my nature to fulfill my own intention, to reveal my Divine Nature, to find what my potential is, to praise it’s creator and to share it.

As the ministers talk this month about the Power of Intention, I know that my Buddha, Christ, teacher, student natures will “do what they do”. I intend to honor their intention to share. I intend to acknowledge everyone on my pathway as a powerful force of nature. I intend to give praise and gratitude for all the gifts being revealed.

It is my intention to reveal my Divine Potential and since I was intended into Being, then I know it is already being revealed! It’s my nature.

And so it is!

Bolded words may refer to subjects recently discussed at Chrysalis

(1120.1) ^102:2.4 Time is an invariable element in the attainment of knowledge; religion makes its endowments immediately available, albeit there is the important factor of growth in grace, definite advancement in all phases of religious experience. Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth. In knowledge alone there can never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows, and knows now. And yet this profound and positive certitude does not lead such a sound-minded religionist to take any less interest in the ups and downs of the progress of human wisdom, which is bound up on its material end with the developments of slow-moving science.

Young Carl Sagan

(1120.2) ^102:2.5 Even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of human experience until they are unraveled and correlated, until their relevant facts actually become meaning through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind. Mortal man views even his physical environment from the mind level, from the perspective of its psychological registry. It is not, therefore, strange that man should place a highly unified interpretation upon the universe and then seek to identify this energy unity of his science with the spirit unity of his religious experience. Mind is unity; mortal consciousness lives on the mind level and perceives the universal realities through the eyes of the mind endowment. The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; only in the harmony of the triunity of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency.
(1120.3) ^102:2.6 Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.

An excerpt from the Urantia newsletter.

Incarnate Souls

Perfect Masters and the Avatar

Baba explained that at all times on Earth there are fifty-six incarnate God-realized souls and that of these souls there are always five who constitute the five Perfect Masters of their era.^[111] When one of the five Perfect Masters dies, Baba asserted that another God-realized soul among the fifty-six immediately replaces him or her by taking up that office.^[112]
The Avatar, according to Baba, is a special Perfect Master, the first soul to achieve God-realization. This soul, the original Perfect Master, or the "Ancient One," never ceases to incarnate. Baba indicated that this particular soul personifies the state of God which in Hinduism is named Vishnu and in Sufism is named Parvardigar, i.e. the sustainer or preserver state of God. According to Meher Baba the Avatar appears on Earth every 700–1400 years and is 'brought down' into human form by the five Perfect Masters of the time to aid in the process of moving creation in its never-ending journey toward Godhood. Baba asserted that in other ages this role was fulfilled by Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.^[113]
Baba described the Avatar as "a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life."^[114]
Most of Meher Baba's followers accept his claim of avatarhood^[99] and he is said to be "revered by millions around the world as the Avatar of the age and a God realized being

Emanuel Swedenborg

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SWEDENBORGIANISM

Swedenborgianism was started by Emaunel Swedenborg who lived from 1688-1772. This group goes by many different names including; The New Church, The Church of the New Jerusalem, or the Swedenborg Foundation. The history of this organization starts out with Emanuel Swedenborg in 1743 when he was visited by the Lord God Jehovah himself. Emanuel claims that God commissioned him to reveal to humanity the true interpretation of the word of God. Today this church continues onward and claims to have divine revelations to the word of God.
Emanuel Swedenborg once stated;

"The falsities of the dogmas of the faith of the present Church must first be exposed and rejected, before the truths of the dogmas of the New Church are revealed and received."

The 'New Church' that Emanuel Swedenborg was referring to in this quote was his own church.

The basic tenant and teaching of this belief is institute the new church as God's new plan for the world. Swedenborgianism claims to represent the only true interpretation of 'The Word' meaning the Bible. To achieve this the writings of Swedenborg are acceptable portions of the Bible because they are interpreted by him. 

The basic doctrinal teachings of the Swedenborg Foundation are as follows. They believe that God is a uni-personal, moralistic and pantheistic in his tendencies. They believe that Jesus or Jehovah (The Father) was a incarnated man - a divine Son of God. The Trinity is taught to be within the one divine person of one's self. Salvation is achieved by a combination of faith and works not by faith only. They teach that the fall was Symbolic and that Man is the "symbol" of  God. The bible is believed to contain the Word of the Lord but is authoritative only when interpreted by Swedenborg's writings. When a person dies it is seen as a continuation of life on earth in the spirit world. How one spends your time here on earth as a spirit is dictated by your spiritual condition at death. 

(Edited from website Empowered by Christ which is generally critical of Swedenborgianism and calls it a cult.)

 

Emanuel Swedenborg was a minister's (Bishop) son and genius who excelled in several disciplines.

He was a writer, assayer, carpenter, mathematician, teacher, professor, inventor, architect, chemist, language master ... and much more. He attended a different church denomination every Sunday to seek the word of God and inspiration from outside aspects. He slept very little and was absorbed in his connection to the spirit world and putting his experiences in writing. He wrote over 32 books of great volume by hand in a Latin script. His books have been translated into almost every earthly language. 

 

Swedenborg was not interested in being the center of a movement based on his beliefs. He never organized any church. Most of the interest in his writing occurred after his death when his books were translated and distributed. His followers today recognize him as a true mystic with special powers of perception and interpretation. He was also a clairvoyant who could see events hundreds of miles from his location. His theory that God maintains a constant flow of blessings called "influx" and that Heaven and Earth are reflections of each other and presented as 'correspondences'.  

 

His books are considered a hard read and are being re-translated presently into a more absorbable format. Many of his books are predicated on the personal definitions of individual words that Swedenborg calls 'symbolic.' Like many religious and sacred texts they are repetitive and threaded with symbolic code. When reading (Heaven and Hell) a Swedenborg tome, one often feels beaten to the ground with repetitious phrases and descriptions -- but the result of having read each book gives the student the feeling of being lifted to a higher consciousness. I felt that my eyes were opened to the relationships of God - Man - and Angels for the first time.

Over all the Swedenborg Foundation is not big in the United States. Most of it's followers are found overseas in European regions. 

 

The website Entitled the Empowerment of Christ falsely warns traditional Christians to be wary of Swedenborg teachings. Actually the complete opposite is true. Any person of any religion can enrich his worship with knowledge from the writings of Emanual Swedenborg. There is no contradiction to modern religious practice in the Swedenborg community. Many followers also attend the traditional church of their choice. Some well-knowed celebrities are followers of Swedenborg and ministers often quote his writings. The Swedenborg practice is one of positivity, love, inclusiveness, and beauty.

Dark Energy Key to the Universe Making Up 73% All Energy and Matter – 570 MegaPixel Camera of the Future? by futurepredictions

Image Credit: fastcodesign.com/

The Dark Energy Camera is a 570-Megapixel digital camera being built at Fermilab. Once the mechanics of the support are tested and approved, the unit will be disassembled and shipped to its final assembly and mounting location at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. This time-lapse consists of 6 percent of the images captured from January through October of 2010. For information on this international project, see darkenergysurvey.org