When the Student is Ready the Teacher Appears

It is a glorious warm day in California with a gentle breeze. I was out running, after getting home from the NoHo Arts Center and a full morning of Spiritual nourishment both by being in church service and by teaching in the Youth Center. It's "Listen Week" in Spiritual Boot Camp and as I was running,I was listening.

The trees swaying in the wind soothed and lulled me. Then quite suddenly, I heard these words: "When the student is ready, the teacher appears."

I have used the statement many times when great teachers appeared in my life. But today as I was running, this statement took on a whole new meaning. I am a student of the Universe, a sort of a Jedi Knight in training. I have spoken my word and said I'm ready to step up. I am ready to step into the Spiritual Universe and live fully in it. Then, a challenge comes up, and I've had some big ones during the last couple of months. But, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." I believe it just might be that the seeming "challenge" is the teacher that has appeared. It is here to see what I am made of. Of course, it is all coming from within me.

Now I remember my spiritual mentor, Rev. Mellon once said and still says, we don't need challenges to grow. I believe that is true and I'm not looking for challenges. But, are challenges bad if all is good? I also believe something else he said, which is whatever is happening in the world of effects, we are equal to; and yet, there is a something within us that is so much more than it.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears." No matter what it is that is showing up, money issues, ill health, relationship challenges, career stuff...what if we looked at it as the teacher we are more than ready for. As we are taught by it, instead of being threatened by it, we walk right through it to the other side. Leaning into the challenge from the powerful place of knowing who we are dissipates it into the nothingness from which it came. It's kind of like that scene in Star Wars, when Yoda sends Luke into the dark place and he meets his father/himself. He can't conquer fear with fear. Love is the only way.

There really is no challenge, if we just know who we are.

You are the Angel I've Been Waiting For

I saw "Avatar" for the first time today. My initial reaction was I wish they'd gone further. The message was clear. Yet, it seemed that at the end they bought in the idea that conflict can only be resolved through violence. Even with all the Avatar culture knew of life's truth, it still came down to conquest and "this is my right/land." I probably need to see it again. There were a million metaphors.

Right now I am finding the need to totally step off the edge into the Spiritual Universe in all ways. Everything and everyone seems alien to me. Things that made so much sense now seem confusing. I can feel the material world slipping away and I am holding on like one of those characters hanging onto a ledge with one finger.

Like I told a friend of mine, someone has to get on the bus first. Be all we can be now! That is everything! We are everything. We come from a Power that is everything. Let's get on the bus! Let's let go of that one finger. Let go!

A friend of mine said a few weeks ago..."I'm up for this journey if you are willing to take it with me."

He had stepped into the mystery of life and bid us to join him. I am willing to take the journey into the Spiritual Universe,where everything, and I mean everything that we have claimed as real in the small sense, no longer is real. A space, where the only Real thing is perfection and love.

What does this look like in a practical sense? It is not practical at all. It means seeing only Good, no matter what is happening. It means seeing the highest in everyone and in every situation. It means seeing love in everyone we are looking at from what we consider an enemy to the person we love the most. It is no different.

The healing has begun. We only need to reveal our highest self now.

What do you see? I see you. You are beautiful, whole and complete. That is all you are. No matter what you have done or what has been onto you. Now matter what you say about yourself or what someone says about you. It is time now to know only this Truth. We are Divine Beings of Love meant to have joy, love, peace, abundance, exciting full lives, bringing light to this planet called Earth.

"We are the angels we have been waiting for."' Maryanne Williamson

You are the angel I have been waiting for.

Namaste! Rita

My Birthday Booty

Today is the last day of my 56th year. I have now spent 56 full years on Planet Earth. Show me what you got, Rita.

Well, I'm shaking my birthday booty, and I have to say it's quite filled with lots of treasures. I've had an amazing life. No gold coins to show right now, but my life is ever rich in experience, friends and love.

First of all, I have to give gratitude for my upbringing, although stormy at times, it is a big part of who I am and I bless it.

I've had the opportunity and wisdom to follow my spiritual trail where ever it takes me and it's always taken me home to mySELF safely. I am grateful.

I had the opportunity to give birth to the three most blessed children who have since grown up to be giving, loving human beings. How much richer can you get than that. I am grateful.

I have always had a loving partner in my life and a rich and fun and yes sexy relationship. Right now I am having more loving fun than ever with Patrick Feren. I am grateful.

I've had the opportunity to laugh, love, cry, and be part of the lives of amazing people...people who actually live their lives to make the world a better place. I cannot put a price on that, either. I am grateful.

I've had the opportunity to express my creativity in multiple ways from cooking to singing to acting to writing. That means that I have spent my life expressing my God gifts. I am grateful.

So, what do I want for my 57th birthday? How do I see my life? At one time, I would have said that I want one of my scripts to sell, I want a million dollars, or I want a new home. Yes, I want all those things. I cannot deny it. But, frankly, I'm tired of wanting things. I'm finally ready to let go.

I want to live in complete knowing that I am a unique expression of God and that God is the only source and substance of my supply. If I could live in that embodiment for more than a few minutes at a time, that would be the best birthday gift that I'd ever had. The thing is, I am the only one who can give that gift to myself.

In the Science of Mind reading today, Ernest Holmes said, "Just so far as we depend upon any condition, past, present or future, we are creating chaos, because we are then dealing with conditions (effects)and not causes."

This rings so true to me. I have most recently been depending on conditions or effects to know that I am all right...that I am rich. The reading goes onto say that "...there is a Power that makes things directly out of Itself-by simply becoming the thing it makes..."

I am willing to go the distance this year. I am willing to trust this Power as the only source of my supply. It is me and I am It. I am shaking my birthday booty and I don't know what it looks like, but it feels really good. It is GOOD!

love,
Rita

PATIENCE IS GENIUS!

It is Patience Week in James Mellon's Mental Muscle Boot Camp and I am honing my patience skills during a week of what seems like endless waiting for my blossoms to bloom. Unfortunately, I am not immune to pulling up the roots either. How many times have I checked my email today to see if "something" is there? I've lost count.

At the same time, I have claimed that I am a Spiritual Being Living in a Spiritual Universe. I am learning that I can walk through this world knowing I am in it but not of it.

So how does this all fit together? I must trust what seem like delays. Is it true, as Michael Beckwith says...that delays are just here so I can acquire additional skills needed for future adventures?

So, I ask "What do I need to know?" My spiritual mentor, James Mellon says those words are a directive not a question. I've been asking it a lot lately and perhaps not expecting an answer. Hush, Rita! Listen!

Breathe...Here it comes..."Enjoy life in the now!" (Oh, not that again, says my will power). However, resist as I might the Now, it is obvious it is the major important life skill I need to still embrace. The Now! Perhaps when I live that I won't need to be patient anymore because there will be nothing to be patient about.

While I watched my husband get ready for work today, I thought back on all the wonders of our life together. I thought of all the moments like this one that would be gone in an instant and how precious they are.

Life is to be relished moment-to-moment. Me, sitting here right now is a moment never to be lived again. James has said, "Patience is Knowing."

Knowing is aligning myself with Divine Will that only knows perfect time. It is time to enjoy the journey and get into the flow. Our success is always assured in the Present.

Eighteenth-century French naturalist, Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-1788), said, "The ability to accept delay. Or disappointment. To smile at setbacks and respond with a pleasant, understanding spirit. To remain calm while others around are uneasy. This is Godly patience. Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; Hold fast; Hold out. Patience is genius."

I am a genius and so are you! Namaste!

love and light,
Rita

IT EITHER IS OR IT ISN'T!

As Religious Scientists are learning and living a philosophy that is based in the Principle that says "We are Spiritual Beings living in a Spiritual Universe and we are governed by our use of the Universal Law of Cause and Effect." This is what we call Divine Principle. This Principle is our Truth. We prove it True by living it as our Truth and as David Walker said, "...not just on special occasions."

Jesus once said that we shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set us free. How does Divine Principle set us free? It sets us free because we know that whatever is showing up in our life is showing up because we believed in it enough to allow it to show up. We did not create it. We created our experience of it. This includes everything and I mean Every Thing. It either is or it isn't! The Good news is that because thoughts are things and if we do not like what is showing up, we have to power to change it by changing our thoughts. It is our choice.

Ernest Holmes says,

"...Nothing can happen to man that does not happen THROUGH him, whether it be the result of his own erroneous conclusions, those of his grandfather, or those of the race to which he belongs! This is not in any sense fatalistic, for WE CAN CHANGE THE TREND OF CAUSATION WHICH HAS BEEN SET IN MOTION AT ANY TIME WE DECIDE TO DO SO."

Note the last sentence, "...WE CAN CHANGE THE TREND OF CAUSATION...AT ANY TIME WE DECIDE TO DO SO." Those CAPS were put in by Ernest Holmes not me. We Decide!

So, let's explore this statement by Ernest Holmes in regards to the thing called "illness" of any kind whether it be a cold or Cancer. Do we have the power to "...change the trend of causation which has been set in motion?" I answer, "It either is or it isn't!"

We are part of a race consciousness that believes in disease. Erroneous thoughts cause things that are erroneous. Am I aligning myself with race consciousness, or am I aligning myself with Truth. If there is a healing to take place, it takes place in my mind. Nothing in the material world is REAL. It is merely a thought that has hardened.

I have been reading the works of Phineas Quimby, a healer, who believed and proved this Principle in regards to illness. Quimby called the Principle the "Science of Life." He said,

"Thoughts are like grains of sand, and are held together by their own sympathy or attraction. The natural man is composed of these particles of thought combined and arranged to make a form called man. As thought is always changing, so man is always throwing off particles or thoughts and receiving others." He goes on to say "man's change of mind is under one of the two directions, either of this world of opinions, or of God; and his happiness or misery is the result of his thought."

So, can we go too far physically in the erroneous direction? Is there a point of no return? Must we die because the doctors told us so? Because, the X-ray says so?

Principle is either true or it isn't. I must believe that erroneous thoughts can never go too far. We can be healed in an instant. Jesus did it. He said what he could do we could do and better. Phineas Quimby believed Jesus and proved it true. There is a Divine Spark within each of us that is not ill. It doesn't know the word illness. It is perfect. It is Good. If we can truly believe in that, anything unlike it would fall away into the nothingness from which it came.

We are not healing the physical man, we are revealing the spiritual man and we can do that anytime we truly decide to do it.

"There is a Power for Good in the Universe and I get to use it." I get to use it because I am it. It is not separate from who I am. This is the Truth I strive to live. Disease, poverty, and war are not real; we have believed them into our experience. They are created by the Power that we used incorrectly. God is Good and everything else is simply not the Truth. It either is or it isn't.

Namaste! Rita

I Do Believe in Rainbows

Today, just as I was getting the news that the sale of my screenplay is still sitting in the world of Hollywood time, I got a call from James. He was calling me about the talk that Patrick and I will give on Sunday Valentine's Day, but the conversation started with him telling me about a beautiful rainbow that he was looking at.

For anyone who was on-line for Boot Camp this morning, you know I teased him about all the rainbows he had seen lately, saying "of course you see rainbows, it's been raining."

Later for a moment I felt sad about my script. I immediately went into meditation, asking what do I need to know. Just like the sun clears a rainy day and brings a rainbow with it, I remembered my conversation with James. While he was looking at the beautiful rainbow and I was getting the news about my script, Spirit was talking to me, this time through James.

I remembered the story of Noah and the flood---the rainbow was a promise from God to Noah that he was loved.

And so, James calling me at that exact moment with news of a rainbow was just a gentle reminder for me that my Word as success has been put into the Law. Whether it revealed to me as a sold screenplay is none of my business. My only business is to know that Spirit always keeps its promises to those who choose to believe in rainbows even when they are behind the clouds. I choose to believe in rainbows. I am already successful right now.

love,
Rita

The Law is Our Faithful Servant

The Universal Law of Cause and Effect is called the Doer, Blind Force, The Creative Medium. It is called many things. It is our faithful servant and it only thinks deductively. That means it does not reason, but only does as we say. It responds to the power of our word backed by our belief.

Recently, I was in a car accident, which someone pointed out to me was not an "accident" but "on purpose." Since I was the person at fault and hit someone else, these words stirred me into emotion. I would never purposely set out to hurt anyone. I did not set out that morning to purposely hit another car with my car. However, I did have a conscious upon the impersonal Law when I left the house that morning. I wanted to work from home and resisted going.

The first thing that happened was my husband was using the car I usually used which left me in the car with out my parking pass. I would have to park somewhere else that day, which put me on the street where the collision occurred. As I pulled out of my garage, I treated for my new Prius or better, and I knew it was already here.

Well, my faithful servant, the Law worked as fast as possible, ala the car accident, which catapulted me home to work after getting towed to the body shop, and then because I do not have renter's on my insurance, a friend lent me her Priuus.

So when thinking about these series of events and knowing that I did not leave the house wanting to hurt someone else or wreck my car, I still cannot call this an accident. Thank God for Grace and Rita's overall sense of well being and non-violence and peace and love which created a a minor instead of a major accident.

So what can I learn from all this. I cannot tell the Law how to do something, for that would be outlining. As I told my practitioner when he was treating for me at the scene of the accident, I feel like my resistance to work created this.

I feel somewhat like the Sorcerer's Apprentice ala Disney's Mickey Mouse. Learning the power of the law without clarity is precarious. I pray for clarity, the ability to trust my intuition. My boot camp word this time around is Gratitude. Perhaps if I used a little more of that, still moving forward at all times to love, live and serve. I would experience more constructive ways of demonstration than car accidents.

Any thoughts on this?

love,
Rita