Endings and Beginnings - announcement

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS 

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it stays as it is; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24 

It is with sadness that I announce I will be leaving Bath Church of the New Jerusalem as of October 31, 2015. Financial realities are what they are. So as to ease the church's financial burdens, I am stepping down two months before the 2015 contract would have ended.

I will return to Canada where the bulk of my friends and family reside. This is an amicable but sad mutual agreement made with the church executive. I will lead the worship and life of the church to the best of my ability until I depart.

It is unfortunate that all of this happened just before I went on vacation. It was difficult to be on vacation with this on my heart, and my return to work has been shadowed with sadness. But such is Providence. Our teachings remind us that every ending is just the start of a new beginning. I will miss Bath and will miss this congregation in particular.

May we all look forward to Providence’s next adventure.

May the Bath congregation find all they dream of, for with God, all things are possible!

All is well and all will be well. Bath and BCNJ will remain in my heart and prayers.

For the time being I will get a day job and enjoy having evenings, weekends, and holidays off like a regular person.  I will be building my online counseling practice and God willing, get back to writing.

I will continue to blog my sermons until I depart. After that, this blog will become my reflections on spirituality and life, with the occasional "supply preaching" sermon thrown in.

God bless,

Pastor Alison

Constant Change

I am pondering the emotional impact of the constant change in my life.  

Yet another familiar hang-out is closing (or moving, or renovating beyond recognition) and it hit me as a loss.  Enough changes already!

Has the pace of change in Western culture accelerated to a challenging rate even for younger minds and spirits, or am I just getting old?  I can't tell. Today I just feel tired of the constant changes and accumulated losses.  

I was thinking about this as I drove home from getting groceries. Spontaneously a song from a favourite artist began to play in my head. It was exactly on topic and brought some comfort.  (It seems God, or the angels, or whatever higher power you might want to name often speaks to me through music.  Funny thing about that.)

So here are the lyrics for your perusal.  I wish I could play you the song.  It has a mellow, rumba-like rhythm.

 Reality    Linda Worster, from the album "Moment by Moment"

1.                  Everything changes.  Earth and water, fire and air rearranges.

There is a universe in you and me

It=s created and set free

Each of us is wholly a part of the One

2.                  Everything matters.  Nature rebuilds as she shatters.

There is no way to resist.

She will not yield to your tightened fist.

Relax.  Don=t insist you find the only way. 

  

Nothing is different, but everything changes

All things are one but the mind sees the many   

And creation is perfect the way that I see, and the way that I don=t see. 

No matter what happens, salvation or sin

Nothing is separate, and all is within

It all depends on what you see.  Moment by moment you create reality 

3.                  Everything spins and swirls

The universe twists and twirls.

All of form is motionsCwaves upon oceans.

Only our notions keep us trapped and afraid.

Nothing is different, but everything changes

All things are one but the mind sees the many

And creation is perfect the way that I see and the way that I don=t see. 

No matter what happens, salvation or sin                                                                      

Nothing is separate, and all is within   

It all depends on what you see.  Moment by moment you create reality

           Whatever that is, you create it: reality.....

http://lindaworster.com 

"There is no way to resist. She will not yield to your tightened fist.  Relax."

There it is.  I am in resistance to the changes.  Though I pride myself in my adaptability, I am increasingly resisting the changes life is bringing now.  I must learn relaxation in the face of the inevitable changes.  I suspect it is not uncommon to resist change as we get older.  I now understand what I judged in my elders before.  I judged that resistance.  Now I am in it.  I have had my fill of losses.  Enough already.  So I am increasingly dwelling on the sadness and nostalgia for what has been lost rather than seeing and rejoicing in the potential for new life and growth.  

So I get it now.  I understand being tired of new things.  I am wanting more permanence.  I am just not as emotionally spry as I used to be.  (Goodness, you would think I was eighty, not fifty!)

Anyway, I guess I need to find some sort of emotional yoga---I need a way to recover my emotional flexibility, balance, and sprightliness.  I want to regain my willingness to step up to life.  And since I have the sneaking suspicion that the changes aren't going to stop coming, I must find a way to relax and stop resisting.  I must find a way to continue to adapt.  

Emotional yoga....  Any ideas? 

With love,

Alison

Reflections on the left and right hemispheres - or, "Does God Live in our Right Hemisphere? Part 1

         I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor speak live, here in Kitchener. I have been reading her book and thinking a lot about the relationship between our left and right cerebral hemispheres ever since.

         Jill has personal, lived experience about the different consciousnesses of our two hemispheres. She suffered a massive stroke at age 36, from which it took many years to recover. Her observations and reflections on this experience are priceless.

         (I strongly recommend buying and reading the whole book, but this chapter bowls me right over. All bold text is my emphasis) Stroke of Insight/Jill Bolte Taylor

"My Stroke of Insight"  - Chapter 15:

"Having taken this unexpected journey into the depths of my brain, I am grateful and amazed that I have com­pletely recovered physically, cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually. Over the years, the recovery of my left hemisphere skills has been tremendously challenging for many different reasons. When I lost the function of my left brain's neurological networks, I lost not only function but also a variety of personality characteristics that were apparently associated with those circuits of aptitude. Recovering cells of function that were anatomically linked to a lifetime of emotional reac­tivity and negative thinking has been a mind-opening experi­ence. Although I wanted to regain my left hemisphere skills, I must say that there were personality traits that tried to rise from the ashes of my left mind that, quite frankly, were no longer acceptable to my right hemispheric sense of who I now wanted to be. From both a neuroanatomical and psycho­logical perspective, I have had a fascinating few years.       

          "The question I faced over and over again was, Do I have to regain the affect, emotion, or personality trait that was neurologically linked to the memory or ability that I wanted to recover? For instance, would it be possible for me to recover my perception of my self, where I exist as a single, solid, separate from the whole, without recovering the cells associated with my egotism, intense desire to be argumentative, need to be right, or fear of separation and death? Could I value money without hooking into the neurological loops of lack, greed, or selfishness? Could I regain my personal power in the world, play the game of hierarchy, and yet not lose my sense of corn-passion or perception of equality among all people? Could I reengage with my family and not hook into my issues related to being a little sister? Most important, could I retain my new-found sense of connection with the universe in the presence of my left hemisphere's individuality?

          "I wondered how much of my newly found right hemi­sphere consciousness, set of values, and resultant personality I would have to sacrifice in order to recover the skills of my left mind. I didn't want to lose my connection to the universe. I didn't want to experience myself as a solid separate from everything. I didn't want my mind to spin so fast that I was no longer in touch with my authenticself.  Frankly, I didn't want to give up Nirvana. What price would my right hemi­sphere consciousness have to pay so I could once again be judged as normal?

          "Modern neuroscientists seem satisfied intellectualizing about the functional asymmetries of our two hemispheres from a neurological perspective, but there has been minimal conversation pertaining to the psychological or personality differences contained within these two structures. Most com­monly, the character of our right mind has been ridiculed and portrayed in an extremely unflattering light, simply because it does not understand verbal language or comprehend linear thought. In the case of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde analogy, our right hemisphere personality is depicted as an uncontrollable, potentially violent, moronic, rather despicable ignoramus, which is not even conscious, and without whom we would probably be better off! In vast contrast, our left mind has routinely been touted as linguistic, sequential, methodical, rational, smart, and the seat of our consciousness.

          "Prior to this experience with stroke, the cells in my left hemisphere had been capable of dominating the cells in my right hemisphere. The judging and analytical character in my left mind dominated my personality. When I experienced the hemorrhage and lost my left hemisphere language center cells that defined my self, those cells could no longer inhibit the cells in my right mind. As a result, I have gained a clear delineation of the two very distinct characters cohabiting my cra­nium. The two halves of my brain don't just perceive and think in different ways at a neurological level, but they demon­strate very different values based upon the types of informa­tion they perceive, and thus exhibit very different personalities. My stroke of insight is that at the core of my right hemisphere consciousness is a character that is directly connected to my feeling of deep inner peace. It is completely committed to the expression of peace, love, joy, and compassion in the world.

         

To be continued.....
http://drjilltaylor.com/book.html