Your conversation together this evening was centered appropriately around the issues of sharing. The principles, the need for such sharing are obvious, but the challenge comes in securing the tools with which you can more successfully share. We would like to explore that a bit with you at this time.

It is good to know you must find ways of sharing who you are, what your needs are, but how and in what environment? You mention how difficult it is to share your thoughts to receptive ears when others fail to understand what it is you are sharing. Sharing requires first of all a sincere confidence in who you are, not what you are—who you are implying a reflection, a representation of what is permanent within, not what you are—what a career may be, or what your obligations may appear to be. To share meaningfully requires you to be absolutely honest with yourselves before you can be fully honest with others.

How often do you find opportunities in your lives to reflect what is truly important to you? You go through the trappings of what seems to be important, what appears to be necessary, what appears to be vital to reach some stated objective. But you must find ways to step back and first acknowledge what is essential for you. Is it your feelings that are essential to acknowledge, or is it your expression of those feelings? Is it the need to express because of external forces, or is the need to express coming from a space deep within your spiritual core? It takes great effort to find what is truly important.

Each individual will recognize a different component of what seems to be important. What is vital to you may be of little interest to someone else. When you feel you are in touch with that which moves you forward as human beings, you must find an  appropriate means for expressing that, and here is where sharing comes into play. You can express what you feel to be important and yet not be sharing, for what you identify as being important may be concepts, they may be thoughts related to careers or relationships, but what really is important is the recognition of what is permanent within you. When you express yourselves as a reflection of what is permanent, that expression carries a validity of its own. The listener may not share that sense of importance to what you express, but if you are fully aware of what is important to you, then whatever you express with an open heart is fully justified.

When you express, when you share as a reflection of what is essential, there must not be an expectation that another will respond as you may wish. You share because of your openness, your willingness to be vulnerable, your willingness to express that, but you do not share with the expectation that another must respond in a way that you might expect. When you create an overlay that colors that response of another, you are in a sense imposing your own beliefs and understanding on the behavior of another.

No two individuals respond to their own inner selves in the same way. To share means to share. It does not mean to plead or to beg or to cajole or to convince. You share what you share because it is a natural outgrowth of who you are. This is the sharing we refer to.

If you have physical, emotional needs, it is certainly appropriate to express those, but you are expressing them within the context of a spiritual connection. You are where you are in your lives, and you are letting others know where you are. You let others know of your emotional pain, your physical pain. You let others know of your joy, your rejoicing, your relief as well as your agonies, but they are offered just as you offer prayers to God. As you say, you put it out there—what comes, comes.

We have frequently said that you do not activate God through prayer, but you open yourselves to the help that’s there. The critical approach in all of this is to open yourselves to what is there. It is not to dictate how you wish God to respond. So it is when you are opening yourselves to another—the needs you have, the pain you feel, the anguish you experience. You put it out there, and then you allow yourselves to be open to what may come. But just as you cannot place a set of expectations on God, you cannot place equal expectations on another human being. Being vulnerable in expressing your needs is important because it is an honest expression, an honest revealing of where you are on your particular pathway of development.

It would be indeed of great benefit to humankind if all individuals could simply say where they are on their journey. If your neighbors were to make such a statement, then it would be easier for you to identify how you could respond to your neighbors in the most meaningful way. But neighbors rarely express those needs, and you go through life with no understanding of the real needs of those around you.

It is the natural state of the spirit to be lovingly supportive. Much gets in the way of that response, but that is the natural response. If you know of the needs of another, you can then respond as you are able to respond, but you are not responding according to the expectations of another, but rather according to how you are led. If you pray for openness, pray for openness to the needs of others, and then pray for clarity on the kind of response that is appropriate. This process only can happen with a free exchange of feelings, a free sharing of where you are on your journey.

Self-knowledge implies an understanding of who you are. What you are is ultimately of no importance. If you are to connect to your spirit center as the genesis for all that is expressed, you must sort through what part is who you are and what part is what you are. “Whats” change; the “who” does not.

So who are you? You are human beings who are connected to the Spirit Center of the entirety of creation. You are connected to All That Is. You are connected to the acts of nature. You are connected to everything animate and inanimate. You are part of a continuum of creation. You are the product of creation, and you are the source of creation. You are at the very basic-most level all that is necessary to become pure love, purely loving. That is who you are, but recognizing what it means can require a lifetime of understanding.

Then you must apply that understanding in your relationships with all who surround you. Those relationships are guided by that understanding. That understanding is not a factual understanding. It is absolutely emotional, a total commitment to its reality, not merely an academic recognition of what may be. Connecting to who you are allows you to form a context for expressing your needs, sharing with others at a significant level of honesty.

We ask you to become good listeners because it is only through your developing skills as a listener that you can achieve the insight necessary to respond in appropriate ways. When you have needs of your own, you may pray that others respond appropriately, and that essentially means you pray so that others may hear you, may listen not just to the words you say, but what you intend by those words. Clear listening works as a two-way street. You listen carefully and clearly to others, and others must listen clearly to what you share. That listening is not by words alone. Meaningful listening can be picking up clues from how another behaves, from the expression in their eyes, from various nonverbal symbols that communicate who they are.

As you pray for help, pray not for what specifically you wish to receive, but rather that others may clearly hear what your needs are. Those needs may be very different from the words that are spoken, on your part or on the part of another, expressing needs. You must learn the skills to learn between the lines, to listen between the sentences, to understand the space between the words, and in doing this, you are much clearer about the real needs.

Sometimes what another expresses is not what is important but rather the fear behind what was expressed. When you hear others speaking with great anger, you can be relatively certain that behind that anger is fear. If you respond to anger with anger, it is the same as responding to others who are expressing their needs as fears through anger on your part. You would never willingly be angry at others who express to you their deepest fears, and yet that is what is often done when those deep fears are revealed through anger.

To be a good listener therefore means listening beyond what is being said or what is being acted out, and trying to understand the context for what you perceive in another. It is equally true that you may be fearful and express that fear in anger, and when you ask for support from another, you must think about what that support is as it relates to fear, not as it relates to anger. If you expect a response from another, you may have those expectations based on the fear that you feel, and yet another is only aware of the anger that you express. You may then think the response to that anger is entirely inappropriate to the fear or anxiety that you feel.

It is for that reason that we urge you not to place an overlay on your relationships with others that infuses those relationships with expectations. It is also why we urge you to become even more aware of who you are and not what you are. The “what” may be an angry person; the “who” may be one who is filled with fear, and yet reaches out in faith that somehow those needs are met.

Sharing therefore is a skill that must be practiced. It is a skill that is fulfilled through your awareness of God, through your awareness of your guides. That awareness leads to a clearer understanding of who you are and what it means to be human beings grounded by a spirit center.

God responds to who you are, not what you say. There is no prescribed ordinance on how to pray. There may be traditions, but those are only traditions. Any form of prayer serves to open that individual to the light that is already present. You may refer to God by any term. You may feel that God is so great that there is no name for God. It makes no difference. The acknowledgment that you are connected to God is the only requirement. You pray because you believe there is a response to that prayer, and that is absolutely true, but that response is not God’s response—it is your response.

Consider always who you are. Give great effort to understanding the true nature of your human lives and the accompanying grace of Spirit. Such an understanding ensures that when you communicate to others your needs, when you communicate to others through your vulnerability, you will then be open to God’s response.

We are with you always. We respond to your needs before you even express them. Your lives are blessed because you are alive. Your lives are blessed because you are part of creation. You matter because you are part of creation. You are never insignificant. You are never separated from the Spirit Center that is the Creator of all.

Reach out with your hands and grasp the Creator, welcoming that loving force into your lives, and give thanks.

Amen.

Families have many issues to deal with that create agony as well as ecstasy, but each family member is important in the development of another’s spiritual strength. You as friends, colleagues, share with one another much that is part of your own lives. You share what brings you pain, and you share what brings you joy. It is the sharing that becomes the glue, the bond, that brings you together now and for the entirety of your futures.

You share by expressing what is in your heart. You don’t share for the purpose of self-promotion or self-benefit. You share in the spirit of offering a part of yourself that others may see and touch emotionally and with love. You share to create a kind of vulnerability, an openness in which you are able to receive the love that can be offered. Sharing is an act of love, particularly when you feel you can share whatever it is that reflects your needs.

Sharing what is good in your lives is, of course, certainly appropriate, but the kind of sharing we refer to is a sharing that invites the presence of another into your own lives. If you are feeling pain, expressing that you are in pain is a way of inviting another to experience that with you, if for a brief moment. Sharing worries or concerns is a way of welcoming another into a healing relationship with you, a relationship that has, as part of its reality, a wish to lessen the burdens.

The burdens of human life are not to be experienced alone. They may be felt as being experienced in such a way, but in reality all can be shared, all can be ministered to. You offer your loving thoughts to those whom you know are in great need. Why is it that you are reluctant so often to express your own needs so that others may respond? Sharing your deepest concerns does not result in burdening another’s life. It can only result in something positive. It may be loving concern. It may be being present. It may be offering assistance of one kind or another. The response is unlimited in choice, but the response is there when others know of your own needs.

Much of what you are engaged in with this group is about sharing. That engagement that you experience can be but a microcosm of what can be gained outside this group. You are aware of some of the needs of others within the gathering. You can see clearly the benefit of being equally aware of the needs of others with whom you come into contact. You are asked to be vulnerable, but you are also asked to be supportive, to be giving, to be compassionate, to be loving. You are asked to serve another, to serve an individual, a group, a community, a national interest.

Human life is a life of service, ultimately service that engages the spiritual presence of another. It is clear that often you do not see, you do not know of the needs that are being cried out for a response, but if you adjust your attention to what seem to be the needs of others, you’re halfway to the goal of being helpful. How is your help provided? For many that help is offered simply by listening with a compassionate and loving ear. There are times when your serving another is achieved by something you say or something you do or by some way that you conduct your lives that reflects your own spiritual awareness. But service to another is merely another way of encouraging you to become more loving.

Life, human life, is not about getting. It must become all about giving. The great gift available as a human being is the gift to give, the gift to serve. When you look at human history, some of the most compelling personalities that you know of are those whose lives have been devoted to giving. You don’t long remember the lives of individuals that are dedicated primarily to accumulating, to getting. It is the giving that lasts because it is the giving that is a direct response to what it means to be loving.

Love is a light. Its energy is to expand. The expansion of love is giving. We’re not talking about currency that you can purchase something with. We’re talking about a currency that can only benefit another. That is the currency, the true currency of life. You give because it provides light. You give because it enhances. You give because it supports. You give because it gives meaning of life to another human being. That is what giving must incorporate.

We speak so often about the importance of being loving to all others, and this is really a loving that is giving. Your goal in human life is therefore the goal of the gift of love, the gift of support. The sharing that you experience in this group and that you experience at times elsewhere essentially provides the environment that encourages the gift. When you receive a gift, you are strengthened, you are reinforced, you are shown meaning, you learn something of love. That is the benefit, that is all that you accumulate. There is no other accumulation of any value than the recognition of love offered by someone else.

We spoke recently of the issues of transition, the difficulties that some spirits experience. Those difficulties, the seeming inability to adapt, are really the results of a lack of receiving the gifts of others, for every human being has a choice of being vulnerable, of receiving love or blocking it. When light is present the light expands, but one can still close the shutters and block out a recognition of what is there. The light is still there. The light is not contained. The light merely resides. At some point the shutters may be opened and the light comes streaming in.

We, your guides, are a part of that beam of light that illuminates your own pathways. At times you close the shutters. At times you close your eyes. But the light that we offer remains, and it continues to expand in your direction while all that is needed is to open the shutters and the light is there. Your act of vulnerability is the act of opening the shutters. The light that comes in is the result of our efforts on your behalf, our commitment to your spiritual growth, and our commitment to your human recognition of what is permanent within.

We are always with you. We are always present. Our hands are always extended. Our countenance is always one of love. All you need to do is to allow yourself to be open, to acknowledge in so many words “I need help.” You are sharing with your guides. You’re sharing with your own core, your soul, your spirit. You’re sharing what your needs really are. The light comes pouring in.

God’s assistance in your lives is always present. You don’t have to plead with God to illuminate your life or the lives of others, for God is not waiting for this pleading. God is already at the door. When you beseech God, when you beseech your guides to respond to the needs that you identify, you are really in fact asking for your own openness so that for which you pray may come forth.

You never activate God through prayer. You activate your own receptivity to what is already present. When you pray to God for help, God does not spring into action and respond with full energy. That response is already there. The dwelling you call home is already bathed in light. All that it needed was to open the windows. That opening is part of the process of sharing, and when you share with one another, you are not pleading that another help you. When you are sharing you are opening those windows that allow the light to expand into your own darkness.

It is therefore essential that you not withhold an expression of need. It is essential that you acknowledge your vulnerability, the need that you have to be illuminated, the need that your lives have to overcome the darkness that you may experience.

We, your guides, are with you constantly. God is with you constantly. Those whom you love are with you constantly. Being stoic and not admitting the needs you have merely serves as a set of shutters that prevents the light you pray for from entering. If you pray for peace and understanding in your own lives, don’t expect that that will come with no response on your part. If you pray for such peace and light, commit yourself to being open to that peace and light, and all that you pray for will be given to you according to your own individual needs.

If you are filled with uncertainty or fear, allow yourself the opportunity to be fully available to the healing that can overcome that uncertainty, that fear. The healing may be recognized in very concrete ways, or it may come quietly in the night, but that healing, that response, is absolute. It is secure. It is the contract that exists between you and your guides and the Spirit Center referred to as God. There is nothing that will separate you completely from that light. There is nothing beyond what you can do that can prevent the light from entering your lives.

All that you pray for is available to you at all times. Be open! If you wish the hand of God, then open your own hands to grasp God’s presence. A closed fist simply denies the presence of the open and loving hand. Release the fist, open the hands, open your heart, open the shutters, and share in the light that is eternally yours.

You are blessed in the light. You are blessed in your efforts to be open, to be receptive. You are blessed in your efforts to share what resides within your path that it may be strengthened, given meaning through the presence of others and through the light that comes from us and from God.

Be in the light! Be in the place on your paths that allows you, that encourages you, that enables you to share.

Amen.

Your discussions together in this gathering relate most directly to burdens: the burdens of spirit, the burdens of human life as they relate to the spirit, the nature of suffering, the nature of darkness, and the influence of darkness on your own lights. The burden of human existence is clear to each of you, for you are faced with burdens daily in your work, in your associations, your relationships. You are aware of what it means to be burdened, either because you feel it yourself, or you witness it in others.

The natural question that arises is from where these burdens originate—the nature of evil, how strong is it, the influence of spirit presence that may be viewed as negative on your own lives. It is best to begin by stating what we have frequently mentioned and yet bears repeating. There are spirits who find difficulty in transitioning from a human experience to a strictly spiritual one, but we can also say that there are spirits who find it difficult to re-associate with the human condition even when they have chosen to do so.

How many times have each of you anticipated something that you chose only to find either disappointment or disillusionment? That experience is also part of the spirit growth of all—all human beings, all spirits. It is God’s purpose that what you pursue and what spirits pursue in the choices that are made are made with the intention of love. You enter a relationship with the intention of love. That love may be fulfilled or it may not, but the intention is there.

When spirits choose to enter or to reenter the human life-form, there is no predetermination of the nature of that life-form, and yet it is true, the soul knows deeply the lessons to be learned, and the soul determines whether such lessons are best learned accompanied by human life or by other life-forms. Your lives are not predetermined. Your experiences are the direct result of your interaction with others, your interaction with the forces of nature. All forms of the natural world interact with one another. Your lives therefore are not predetermined.

When a soul is attracted to identifying directly with a human form, and that human energy is not long-lived, such an event is not determined by the soul, is not determined by God. It is indeed part of what it means to be human. You experience what you experience, and the soul shares in that journey just as you are sharing in the development of your spirit center. Your lives take on the characters that are appropriate at that moment. When you are unaware of spirit, your lives are appropriately reflecting that lack of awareness, and when that awareness grows, your paths reflect in appropriate ways that awareness.

The conflicts that you experience as your paths intersect are a natural result of that very intersection. Your responses to those intersections are informed by your understanding of spirit, and as you develop through those responses, you enhance spirit. You enhance your own soul’s development.

But there are souls who also find difficulty associating with human life energy, human life-forms. Souls learn just as you learn. Souls evolve as you evolve. Growth does take place, but a soul that has been troubled and is learning and growing and reflecting the presence of God can in the process create an energy that is not actually detrimental or negative, but an energy that needs an accumulation of love, that needs to learn what it means to be even more loving. That lesson is achieved most often through connections with human life. We are not for a moment suggesting that some human beings have unhelpful souls, for all souls bring strength to the human condition. All souls are developed. All souls are most loving. All souls embody compassion. But all souls are still on a journey of development and growth.

No soul reenters our plane of spiritual existence with full knowledge and being total love. It is a process, as we have said before. For some souls, that transition to our form of life is a process that is smooth, surrounded by much light, and engulfed in a love which is fully accepted and embraced. There are souls who join our plane who find it difficult to acknowledge that a wider life is open to them, and for many reasons, may be unwilling to embrace the light that is there. Such souls feel more committed to their human attachments than to the loving light that surrounds them.

It is therefore true that there are many spirits who are in a sense locked, who are in a sense not free to move forward. This condition is not externally imposed. It is strictly a condition of choice. You can choose to move ahead, or you can choose not to accept the light. For those locked souls, those souls who feel somehow restricted, they experience great difficulties, for they have not had an opportunity to fully accept the light that is theirs to behold.

Consequently there are souls who are disturbed by the condition that they choose to find themselves in. There is a negative energy that exists with these spirits. It is not an evil energy, for no soul is evil. All souls are good, but they nevertheless find difficulty in fulfilling the goodness that is theirs. The negative energy is one of darkness; it is one of burden; it is a heaviness. You can walk into a room that is empty and feel heaviness, just as you can walk into a room that is empty and feel great light. You can feel a lightness, a lack of burden. There are places one can visit that are characterized by great lightness of spirit, of great light as well. But the burden we speak of is a burden of darkness. This darkness is the lack of light.

For your spirits, nourishment is true light. Your souls grow in the presence of light. Your souls are strengthened through burdens that may be encountered, but the consequence of that struggle is lightness, a reduction of burden.

Can the negative energy that exists impact your lives directly? Yes, it can. We have said many times that the dark is the absence of light, and it is the absence that creates the burden. It is not what the absence contains. It is what the darkness lacks that has the influence. If you are entering a room and feel the darkness, you are not feeling the darkness. You are truly feeling the lack of light, because it is the light that is needed for growth. That light is love, compassion, affirmation, sacrifice, vulnerability. That light is all that you can imagine that brings attention toward God. The darkness is all that exists that is unaware of God’s presence. The lack of light, the lack of that sense of spirit presence, spirit centrality, is what you can interpret as being negative or evil.

There are no evil human beings. There is evil behavior, but the center of all human beings is spirit, and spirit by definition is never evil. The darkness we speak of is much like a vacuum. It sucks in what is missing. It draws towards itself because it is empty. Air rushes into a vacuum. The movement is toward the vacuum. The vacuum is not drawing what lies beyond its reach, but rather what lies beyond its reach is drawn to fill the vacuum. It is not the power of the vacuum that moves but the power of the light that is moving.

The darkness you wonder about in its impact upon the human life experience is more readily understood as the human life experiencing an attempt to respond to the darkness that is present. That relationship between light and darkness is not a two-way street; it is one-way. Light rushes in to fill darkness. Darkness is not drawing in what lies beyond it. The energy does not come from what is dark.

The question of human response to darkness is an important one. For those who are connected consciously to their spirit centers, the response to darkness is a positive response. But for those who have no concept of their spiritual essence, they too may move to fill the darkness, but what is accomplished is what seems to enhance the human and not to enhance the spirit.

When you see evil, as you define it, around you, you have a choice in how you respond. You can respond with anger and indignation. You can respond with violence. You can respond with patience, with understanding, with compassion, with the loving desire to assist—not a motivation to destroy. You do not have to be fully aware of your spirit centers to respond to darkness, for the natural state of All That Is is to fill what seems empty. And what is darkness other than an emptiness that must be filled?

The movement from what has been created outside the darkness into the darkness is the same whether the intention was for the good to respond to the darkness, or if the darkness had strength of its own, to pull all towards itself. The movement is the same. The direction is still the same—going from light into darkness.

Darkness never spreads. Light can only spread. Light cannot be contained. It is not an energy that can be finitely, permanently, totally contained. The energy of light always expands. It illuminates, it warms, it nurtures, literally and figuratively. Whether we talk about light in terms of its physics or we talk about light as analogy to spiritual strength, both respond in the same way.

Each one of you is a creature containing light. Each one of you is given an opportunity to reflect that, to become lightness, to become someone who is dedicated to reducing burden, to lessening the burden of others. By becoming more aware of your spirit centers, you also lighten your own burdens. Will they go away fully? Certainly not, for human experience always includes burdens. But those burdens can be greatly reduced, and in the process you become a source of additional light, and there is a lightness to your presence, a lightness that nurtures your own lives and also those around you.

You must look to your lives as a process of reducing the burden, of reducing the darkness. This darkness may be psychological. It may be physical. It may take many forms. But dedicate your lives to minimizing the effect of the darkness, minimizing its presence, filling the void with your own light. In so doing, the darkness that exists, the darkness of spirits that may be contained and restricted, lost, reluctant, will also find nourishment. Those souls will be filled with the light of your own presence, and they will be strengthened and given faith, and most importantly, because of the light that you reflect, they will be more capable of opening themselves to God’s Light and to the light of all spirits on our plane.

The spirits of all who join us are given that choice—the choice to find warmth in the illumination, or the choice to pull back and shield themselves. For those who find it difficult to accept our illumination, that choice that they make is never permanent. It is simply a choice they make because it is a part of their pathway, just as you make choices as part of your pathways. The process of growth, the process of welcoming the light, is the same for you and for us. It is that very process that brings us ever so clearly to the center of that light, to God’s presence, and to ultimate love.

Reach out to the darkness wherever you find it. Reach out with love. Reach out with a desire to illuminate, to comfort, and to guide.

You are blessed in your reaching out as you are blessed by our reaching to each of you in all ways and at all times.

Amen.

We spoke to you the last time about journeys, about transitions, about a vision of what lies before you. That discussion was filled with examples offered to help you understand in some way the process of your pathway. These paths that you travel upon of course are not specifically physical pathways, but they are indeed a process. They are indeed an opportunity to expand, to become deeper and broader, to become more humble, to become more vulnerable, to become more loving.

Your lives are a process. The energy that your lives consist of is devoted to process. The energy is constant, but the energy always changes. How is it constant? It is constant by being there, by being with you, by being a part of you, by defining who you are at any moment along your path. But it is also changing in that your energy takes on new forms, takes on new identities. We have spoken somewhat of this in the past. You are the same person you were as children, and yet your identities have been transformed into adulthood. Nevertheless, you are the same person. The energy that was a part of you then as a child is undeniably a part of who you are as an adult, and yet the manifestation of that energy is different, and it is how that difference takes place that occupies the character of your paths.

You intersect with one another, and in so doing your energy is transformed. Each of you is changed through your connections, through your engagement with one another, just as you are changed through your engagements with everyone else in your lives. The blessing of sharing these communions of spirit with a group is that you have an opportunity to respond individually to one another, to challenge understandings, to question beliefs but never to criticize them. This interaction, this exchange of spiritual energies results in a profound transformation for each of you. This transformation of energy is not unique to your group, but because of your interaction with one another when you are together, such changes may seem more evident. You make a statement, and you have some kind of response.

This type of exchange of energy leading to growth is different when you are about your daily activities. Seldom do you have an opportunity to express heartfelt thoughts, heartfelt experiences, heartfelt hurts, heartfelt joy so completely. When you are engaged with others on a daily basis, much of your personal experience remains hidden within the shadows of your pathway, and they are less obvious to others. Being less obvious does not imply that they are of no significance or little significance. Your thoughts, even those thoughts that are unspoken, have a direct impact on others. If you surround yourself with peace, you will be peaceful, and that peacefulness will have a direct impact on others. If your thoughts are filled with anxiety, competitiveness, jealousy, defensiveness, insecurity, then you become the embodiment of those experiences, and that embodiment is felt by others.

If you seek peace, seek those who are peaceful. If you seek faith, relish the company of the faithful. If you try to be loving toward others along your pathway, bring yourself into the company of others who are loving. Like does attract like. Those who are compassionate attract others who also share the value of compassion. You have the opportunity to create in this manner precisely what it is you seek. You create a vision of the shore that you are pursuing, and that shore comes into view.

There were questions about the concept of a ship seeking a distant shore from our last communion. What about those ships that don’t reach the other shore? All ships reach the shore, but the shore, the goal of your spiritual journey, is not a specific concrete objective of spiritual perfection or full knowledge or total peace or total health or life without difficulty. The shore we speak of is the shore of spiritual broadening, a spiritual depth that is brought within the human experience. The shore is a goal that is more intention than real arrival, as you consider the concept.

You pray to be loving. As you become loving, you are reaching an objective of spirit. Do you become one hundred percent loving? No. Do you become one hundred percent peaceful? No. Do you become one hundred percent faithful? No, but you are becoming loving, you are becoming peaceful, you are becoming faithful, and it is the becoming that is the real shore, the real goal. Is it possible to become fully any of these characteristics? In human life, no, but in your spiritual life, the life that really is permanent, the answer to all is an emphatic “yes!” You must remember human life is part of a process. It is not product oriented. You will never become fully love. You will never become fully faith, but you can become more loving, you can become more faithful, and it is in that becoming that you are achieving the goal. You are achieving the port that you seek.

You must learn to evaluate your own goals, to identify what is ultimately of importance. It is easy for human beings to say in definitive terms, “I want to be the best. I want to be the perfect example of ___, or the strongest proponent for ___,” and you fill in the blanks. Those goals are finite, but the goals that we refer to are not. They are reachable, but they are reachable because of the process of human life, the process of a fully spiritual existence.

Will we, your guides, become perfect love? Yes. Will you become perfect love? Yes. All will become perfect love. All will be transformed in their energy into complete and total love, for all are ultimately drawn to the Center, the Center you refer to as God. Every soul becomes a full participant in the Energy of Love that is God. Every path that is taken ultimately leads to that perfection. Every human being you have met, every human being you have read of, every human being that you have no awareness of whatsoever will become God. It is for that reason that we refer to all human beings as godly. You’re in the process of becoming God. You’re on the path that leads fully to God.

God is the ultimate other shore. There are storms on the seas of life. There are shipwrecks. There are disasters. There are days of clear sailing, but despite what you observe, despite what you experience, the other shore is reached. If each of you perceives of your lives as part of this grand journey of the spirit that you in human form are accompanying and nurturing, then you will acknowledge the sacredness of that journey. Your human form, your physical being, indeed is an accompaniment to the spirit. It is not that the spirit is an accompaniment to the human being. The spirit moves forward, and you as human beings are part of that journey, but it is the spirit that is on that ship. And for a brief moment, you join that journey, and as you accompany your spirit, you experience what the spirit experiences.

It is the spirit, your soul, that is the principal energy to life. Yes, your energy is evident. It is seen by others and therefore is assumed to be the most important reality, but you are merely companions to a greater energy force, the force of Love. You learn from your spirit. Your spirit also learns from interaction with you. For awhile the spirit is on the journey alone, and then it is accompanied in human form, and then it continues alone, and it may be accompanied again at a later time. But what is making the true journey is your spirit.

You grow as you become more aware of your partner, your spiritual essence, for that spiritual presence finally provides meaning for the journey. You are not on the ship merely to be on the ship. The ship, the path, is merely a way, a means, of getting to the other shore. Your lives move and are governed and given purpose and understanding solely through your awareness of spirit.

There are those on the journey who feel they are the essence of that journey. You have all met such individuals. That experience that they have is appropriate for them at that moment in their development. If you are in a darkened room, you are unable to tolerate suddenly being in the presence of great light. If you are in the darkness, you must accommodate to the light gradually, and after such accommodation, the bright light is tolerable and becomes fully welcomed and embraced.

And so it is with human beings who are unaware of spirit. When you try to share with them the importance of their acknowledging the soul, they will be unable to fully embrace what you share. But if you live your lives reflecting the soul that you are accompanying, then those who feel they are the principal presence on the path will slowly recognize that there is an emergence of a delicate Light. Your presence in their lives is enhanced by its delicacy, not its dominance. When you encounter others on your journey who reject your sense of spirit, your sense of soul, allow that rejection to be a part of the adaptation gradually to recognize the presence of Light, and be willing to serve as that gentle beacon. In so doing, you reflect your full awareness of the Spirit Center to which you are joined, and you also gently illuminate those who have no similar vision of Light.

The journey across the sea is indeed filled with many opportunities, many experiences. But allow the journey to take its own course. Allow the journey to provide what it will provide, and if you expect to reach a finite shore, then accept the reality that the real shore that all journey toward is the shore of being fully God, being fully aware of the absolute sacredness of All That Is. That shore is the capacity to become fully Love, capable of illuminating all in its presence.

What you are experiencing as human beings, therefore, is not toward a finite end in itself. It is the journey in a sense that is your immediate goal. The journey—not its conclusion—but the journey itself. The journey takes you where you must go. The path leads where you must follow. Have faith in your own journey. Have faith in the journeys of all human beings. Avoid that temptation to judge its validity when you see a path that seems to be heading in a totality incorrect direction. That path that you observe that is not your own is equally valid, and although you do not see its conclusion, you can be fully faithful that all paths do come together. All paths culminate in absolute total Love.

Accept what you cannot understand. Accept the paths that you may disagree with. Accept the attitudes of others that you may not be consonant with. The dissonance that you feel in life is the conflict of different paths intersecting, seeming to go in opposing directions. Each path has turns. Each path has what seem to be detours, but each path in its totality is totally correct. The detours may be painful. The detours another may take can bring pain to you, but those detours are only obstructions. They are not the direction that is really being followed.

Accept the obstructions that are in your own life. Accept the uncertainties. Accept the setbacks, for those are merely brief detours. You are on the paths that you must be on. The detours belong to your paths with equal importance to the goals that those paths lead you toward. All that happens, whether boulders or smooth sailing, give new meaning to your journey, give you purpose, give you strength, and can serve to affirm your acceptance of all opportunities to accompany your spirit and to move toward God.

You are blessed in your journey. You are blessed in your detours. You are blessed when you don’t see where your paths may lead. You are blessed in your uncertainties. You are blessed in your boulders. And you are blessed in your opportunities to share with others your journey, however delicate your light may be shown.

Amen.

All individuals, all human beings, are given the tools to see in their faith. For some, that gift is readily embraced. For many others, that gift is ignored, either willfully or by circumstance. But the truth is, all have the gift to see beyond what they see with their eyes and sense in other ways.

You wonder at times about where your life must lead—its purpose, its direction. Is life a series of random events, or is there a kind of master plan that provides identity to the journey? We say to you no life is random, but we also assert that no lives are predetermined in any definitive manner. There is no randomness because life does have a pattern. That pattern is growth. That pattern is movement. That growth is an evolving ability to become loving.

The movement is essentially the change from where you are to where you can be. This is not a physical change in location; it is a change of awareness. A young child is aware of self. A wise individual is it who becomes more fully aware of the other in life. There is no change in position but a radical transformation in perspective. That is the movement—that is the only movement that is of real value.

You are given human life for such movement, for such change. You are given life because of the potential that life provides for your growth as spirits. The challenges you face may seem less spiritual challenges and more physical/emotional challenges. But the physical, the emotional, or psychological challenges are merely part of the greater movement, the greater growth that takes place.

Each of you is given life to be lived. For some, the choice of how to live calls for a withdrawal from the normality of life around them, but it is not the withdrawal into a monastery or some other secluded condition that provides for growth. That withdrawal is only an opportunity that may be taken, that may encourage spiritual growth. Indeed for some, that choice is most beneficial. For others, growth occurs through the direct and daily interaction with all that is around them—celebratory, painful, elated, debilitating as those conditions may be.

You are asked to grow. You are not expected to grow in one environment as opposed to another. Your efforts to grow are more beneficial as you choose how, in what environment, in what surroundings that growth is to take place. Your human growth is only partly emotional, only partly physical, but it is ultimately thoroughly spiritual, not in the sense of a formalized religious approach, but in the soft, quiet reality of what is sacred within all.

When you recognize the sacredness of absolutely everything you encounter, you cannot help but change your interaction with all that is. When you recognize a neighbor to be sacred, you then choose not to respond to that neighbor with disinterest or judgment. The affirmation of sacredness requires an expression of love. How is that affirmation expressed? It is expressed by listening. It is expressed by being there. It is expressed by being open to what others may feel to be sacred in their lives. You reflect the sacredness of something by the way you hold it. If you have an icon of great sacred worth held in your hands, you enfold that icon with great care, great respect, love.

Why is it that human beings often recognize in principle the sacredness of another and yet never hold up the other with equal affirmation, equal love, equal care? Human beings are to be caring, but you are also to be cared for. Both are part of your spiritual paths. Both are inherent to a life with purpose, a life with focus, a life of loving. You are given life as an opportunity to hold up another, to hold up others, to hold up communities, to hold up nations, to hold up religious philosophies, all as being sacred.

What you say to another is sacred. The words you choose are merely an expression of what you feel within. If you seemingly have no respect for another person, the words you choose in your interactions with another are far different than if you are speaking from the position of great love, of great respect, of great caring. You have an expression, “Actions speak louder than words,” but we say, “Words themselves are actions.” Words are one window to what lies within. Actions that are physical actions are another window.

Your response to all that is surrounding you must be characterized as being loving. For the individual with whom you have great disagreement, the only appropriate response is listening and speaking in terms that reflect respect, reflect love. The words you choose are for that moment the actions that you’ve chosen. The actions are not implying physical work, physical activity. The words are the actions. The words are the deeds.

Words, therefore, are as sacred as the individuals you encounter. Your choice of words is sacred. Your choice reflects your current journey. Is anger appropriate? Of course, but anger can be expressed as a divisive action. Anger can also be expressed as a means of showing love. When you are angry at a child, you are expressing your love for that child, for you want the best for that child. If the child is about to do something dangerous, your anger may save that child’s life. You are angry, not at the child but at the situation, and you use your anger as a way of offering protection. That is a form of love.

The words you employ are the actions. They are the deeds. Some deeds have no words and yet speak volumes about who you are. When you are impatient and judgmental, your actions indicate that impatience. Your actions can indicate judgment without the need for words.

Your lives therefore are gifts of the Spirit to the spirit. Your lives are a gift of God to all that is godly within. Your lives are a reflection of the light that surrounds you and a means of drawing out the light that is within.

You learn through these experiences. You grow and thrive through such efforts, but where does this lead? What is the purpose of all that you know of life if it ultimately leads nowhere? If all that you know to be true indicates the necessity of spiritual growth, and there is no result from those efforts, then what purpose can be served by such lives? All that you know would cease to have meaning. As you recognize the importance of finding ways to be loving, you acknowledge in that very way the reality that there is a goal, that this leads somewhere, that there is purpose, that there is a direction to be sought after.

You wonder about transitions—transitions from human life to something relatively unknown. There is, of course, always fear surrounding what is unknown. But from your own experience you also acknowledge that much of what you have fear of, you learn was of no value and often never existed. So it is with the transition from one kind of life to another kind of life. Because the transition is unknown—the nature of that transition and where it leads—the mystery remains strong, and consequently the fear of that mystery remains strong.

You must acknowledge the naturalness, the appropriateness, the importance of those transitions. All human beings of course experience that, and for those who are left behind when you lose someone you love, that transition represents a loss. But for the individual who makes that change of life-form, it is a transition of enormous beauty and joy and strength. The goal is reached. The initial purpose of human life is then in some form or another accomplished. Yes, there are souls who choose to reincarnate for there is yet more to learn, but the transition is a kind of graduation. It is a kind of affirmation that growth has occurred, and it is a moment in your consciousness that is filled with enormous love and warmth and joy.

When you were children, many were afraid of the dark, not because there is something fearful about the dark, but because the dark held something within that was unknown. Children may have a strong imagination that lets them leap beyond what they know and see, but there is a natural fear of fully experiencing what it is that is unknown. As adults you are no longer physically children, but you do experience the same fear of the dark, fear of what you cannot see, what you cannot touch. But just as the dark results in the coming of light, so the transitions that all experience are followed by great light, great love.

We don’t criticize you for your concerns, but we do wish you to understand that such fear of the unknown, of the uncertain, belongs ultimately to the realm of evolving faith. When a child’s parents leave and are out of sight, the initial reaction is that those individuals are no longer there. They have disappeared and the child is alone. Eventually the child realizes that the parent can leave, but the parent will come back, and the child really is not alone. For the first time, the child begins to learn that there is an existence beyond what can be seen and heard. That child realizes the parent is not next to them but also not gone. The parent will come back. The child is not alone.

So it is when you ask questions about the transition. When someone transitions to our side, the common response is “that person is no longer with us,” with you. The person is somehow departed. Even using the term “departed” implies away, no longer present. But the truth is whoever is considered departed is not away any more than a child’s parent who steps around the corner is away. That parent is present. The child learns; the adult learns. You begin to realize that there is indeed a life that you cannot see. It’s a life around a corner from what is visible, and yet it is a life that is indeed fully present.

The physical trappings of life have nothing to do with what is permanent. You say you know this to be true, and yet deep down you may wonder, “Is it really true?” You are given life not because when it ends, it ends. You are given life because when it changes, it continues. You survive because you adapt. Your spiritual essence survives because it adapts to a new environment. The spirit remains and consciousness remains.

We, your guides, are fully conscious. Indeed, we are aware of far more than you can possibly see. We are conscious of what is permanent. We are conscious of what is good. We are conscious of all forms of love. We are conscious of all forms of reaching out. We are conscious of all acts of compassion, of listening, of being there. We are aware of your prayerful thoughts on behalf of another. We are conscious of the response of another’s spirit to your prayers. We are fully conscious. The transition is one of moving from limited vision to full and embracing vision. It is from this greater vision, this greater acknowledgment of love that such joy fully counts.

Your lives do indeed have direction. The paths that you take do lead somewhere, and yet while you are on the middle of that path, you are not expected to easily see where you are headed. If you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you may not be so aware of where you are. You see where you are, but you have no understanding of where that is. It doesn’t make sense. There is no land in sight. All you see is the sky and the water. Three days later all you see is the sky and the water, and it appears you have moved nowhere. The truth is you have been journeying forward, but have been unable to find evidence of that growth, that direction.

So it is with your lives on a daily basis. You are busy. You encounter your friends, you encounter family, you encounter colleagues, you encounter challenges, you encounter concerns for health—your own health, the health of others. It seems from day to day that you have not moved forward. It seems as if the ship you are on is engaged in getting nowhere. But the truth is the ship journeys onward. The truth is your lives journey onward. The truth is the transitions that you experience carry the journey onward. No life stands still. All life has a direction, even when you are unable to recognize appropriate markers to measure your progress.

Consider your lives to be that ship in the middle of the ocean. A ship has a captain. You have your spirit center, your soul. You have your guides. You have the loving presence of God. You are not in the middle of an ocean going nowhere. Everything you do is a part of that journey. Every individual you meet, every activity you participate in, every challenge you confront—all are part of that journey. The seas may be filled with storms, but the ship moves ahead. Just as you have faith that the ship is moving forward, you can have equal faith that your lives are moving forward, that you are growing in your spiritual development. You are evolving.

All human beings go through this same process. There are ships that find their course with relative speed through the ocean, and there are other ships whose pacing is more deliberate, but they are all crossing. They’re all transitioning from one shore to another. Every human being is engaged in this sacred journey. You are guided through the calm winds and violent seas, but the goal is always reached.  The new land is filled with new opportunities, and your vision is thereby expanded.

Have faith that you are blessed and guided by the journey itself, not just when you reach another shore. God’s steadying hand provides shelter but also the potential of absolute inner peace along the way.  Look around you as you contemplate your place along your path. All that you do see contains the same sacredness as what you perceive to be the desired goal. Embrace the present, whatever it brings, knowing that you are guided, led by the sacred presence of God, and that you will reach the shores you seek according to the needs of your spirit and the outreachings of those who surround you.

You are blessed in your gift of seeing beyond the sky and water, beyond merely standing on a path. You are blessed in your ability to take on greater understanding of the depth of God’s presence in each stone, each molecule of water, in the moisture in the clouds and the beauty of the clear sky.  Be strengthened by your confidence in the goal and the appropriateness of your place in the Journey.

Amen.

You ask so often in your own ways about the direction of your society, the direction of the world, the place of light and darkness, the relationship between balance and imbalance, the purposes of joy and sadness. You are, as are many in the world, on an extensive journey. This journey encompasses fair weather and foul. It encompasses great friendships and challenging relationships. The journey that you are on is the journey you must be on.

You are not placed upon your paths by some matter of random occurrence. You are where you should be because you are where you belong. You are brought to this place of consideration, of listening and sharing, because you are ready for this encounter. You are brought here because it is most appropriate for your own paths of growth.

Your position within your own paths is not unlike the position of your society or your government within the wider framework of humankind. What you experience politically and socially within your country is presented to you not as a random act but as an integral part of what it means for many to evolve into a society that values others.

Your society, indeed your nation, is very young. It is much like the youth of human life. Youths approach their lives as they feel it is best for them; the degree of commitment to what is best for all measures the development of humans on their paths. A child thinks about “me.” Many adults think about “us,” and a few think about “you.” This latter group has reached a stage in their development when the sense of “I” or “me” or “mine” is entirely eclipse by the importance of “you, yours.”

Ultimately when a group of individuals considers of primary importance what happens to or what is important for, the ultimate beneficiary becomes not the other but all. If you wish a group to benefit and grow in the most effective manner, each member of the group must be concerned primarily with the other. You ultimately grow through your concerns for another, and when that is the condition of everyone, everyone grows. There are no fences. There are no barriers. There are no deterrents. It is all a function of doing what helps and affirms and provides love to someone else.

And so it is with societies, with communities, with nations, with collectives of nations. Most in the early stages are concerned about what is in their own interests. How often do you hear it said about your own government, “We are concerned about our defense and an appropriate response to our interests abroad”? How often do you hear statements that say, “We are interested in our own defense, but we are committed to what is best in the interests of other nations”? That “otherness” is a state of being that can only take place with great maturity and humility. It is as rare a national policy as it is an individual perspective.

It is a form of judgment to say that another individual cannot think beyond himself or herself. It is also a matter of judgment to say, “A nation cannot think beyond itself.” As you are always being asked to be nonjudgmental of others, you collectively must learn to be nonjudgmental on a much larger scale. You may not be happy or convinced about the direction of your political machinery, but it is important that you recognize that what you are observing is part of a process. Governments evolve just as human beings evolve, for governments are merely a collection, an assembly of human beings. The government will never be more advanced than the humans that occupy those positions of authority and decision making, policy making.

If you wish to see a change in how governments relate to one another, you must be concerned about how you relate to others. Your development as individuals is not separate from your development as a society, your development as a nation, or your development overall viewed as the entirety of humankind. Each of you is part of a process. Each of you is evolving. Your community is part of a process, and it is evolving. Your nation is part of a process, and it is evolving. The relationship between nations of the world is a process, and that also evolves.

It is not a problem to recognize the shortcomings of your own or the shortcomings of those around you or the shortcomings of a nation, but it is counterproductive to feel that the current state of development is what in your words would be considered “a lost cause.” There is no lost cause. You are not a lost cause. There is no one individual who is a lost cause. You know that. No government is a lost cause.

Human beings may be misdirected in their passions just as nations may be so misdirected, but misdirection has no bearing on value. You’re not a lesser being if you proceed through life somehow misdirected. A nation is of no less value when its policies are misdirected. They are simply misdirected, and being a part of the process, they will move forward. Each of you continues to develop as human beings. Each nation is on its track in evolving and discovering what is truly important—that not being the continuation of self but the valuing of others.

It is easy to feel discouraged when your lives experience imbalance, when you face frustration and anger, regret, when you experience illness, but that imbalance is part of the process. It is part of what it means to evolve, to grow, to become broader. All the values that you hold to be true as they relate to personal growth apply equally to the growth of state.

You turn to us asking for insight. That action is a statement filled with trust and more importantly with the kind of vulnerability we speak of so often. It is the fate of all nations, all communities, all groups of individual that they ultimately become vulnerable. Vulnerability is not related to weakness but rather refers to an openness and a willingness to learn from others, a willingness to value the presence of others. When you become vulnerable, when you become willing to receive the gifts of love, you grow. You become more sensitive to the gifts of God’s presence. A nation must also in its way become vulnerable—not weak, but yet willing to acknowledge the value of all other nations to the collective good, to the collective growth. When one nation acknowledges the importance to another with the objective being a peaceful, respectful relationship, then that acknowledgment generates the peace and the respect that is sought after.

If you and another individual are committed to sharing existence as human beings characterized by mutual respect, then that relationship will create respect, and that respect will create justice and peace. It requires a commitment from both parties.  So it is with nations. When countries acknowledge the value of one another, not for the purpose of how another can satisfy our needs but rather how each can satisfy the other’s needs, then the building process that leads toward peace is begun.

Your relationships to your neighbors must ultimately be based on this mutual commitment. It is uncommon to achieve that relationship truly, for one generally finds one party more interested in mutual respect and another party seeking ways to meet its own interests. But this reality should in no way discourage the effort to create those types of relationships. A good marriage must be worked at. If one party seeks a good relationship and the other does not, the marriage is not strong. But if both are committed to the value of the other, then that relationship is sealed with great strength.

When you are in relationships with another individual or another community or another nation, and that other seems less interested in acknowledging shared mutual interests, that is not an excuse to give up seeking to contribute in some way to that relationship. You seek because it is who you are, not because of what you expect to get from it. You offer love because you are loving, not because of what you expect to receive in return. That is not love. That is all about another entity meeting your needs.

Just as you must learn this as individuals, so must nations also learn the same lesson. We can say with absolute clarity that the process and the result that you seek—one of fairness, one of understanding, one of responsiveness at the national level—is moving forward. You may not see that progress because you don’t see the pattern. You see the details. You cannot understand the great beauty of a tapestry by looking at one small corner. You must stand back. You must gain a perspective, and then you begin to sense with great clarity the nature of that tapestry.

From our perspective, we see the entirety. Yes, there are details that are important, that contribute to the entirety, but our view is what is happening in your growth as an individual, what is happening in the growth of your community, what is happening in the growth of your nation, what is happening in the growth of humanity. Looking at that greater pattern, it is very clear that what is good is far stronger than what is not.

Light is stronger than darkness. Light contains an energy that is lacking in the dark. The power of love is far more impressive than the power of hate. The desire to communicate is ultimately stronger than the desire to separate. A view is more powerful than a fence. The warmth between human beings far outweighs the animosity. What you see that unites you with others is more powerful than the evidence of your differences.

We can say these things with full knowledge. You can understand the words, but the challenge is to apply them in the practice of your daily lives. You must have faith that the hand of God is very much a part of the human experience. The Creator does not create and then pull away. The Creator creates and continues to create. Human life has evolved to become human life, but as humans you continue to evolve. That evolution did not stop once human beings existed in forms that you now recognize. This is again evidence of the continuity of process. You are part of that process. You are part of that growth. You are part of what it means to be godly.

As you continue your lives on a daily basis, consider what it means to relate to those around you with full respect. Avoid the temptation to base the relationship on what serves your interests. Take that relationship and turn it outward rather than inward. Live the kind of life that you hope others will emulate.

Don’t reflect what is dark, for the dark does not have energy to reflect. You can only reflect what has energy. You can only reflect what is light. Reflect all that is good that you see in others, and let that reflection be acknowledged as worthy of the benefit for all, and you will find the evidence you seek in life moving forward with more peace, more tolerance, more understanding.

We guide you with our love, not because of what you do for us, but because we are committed to what is best for you. As you reflect that love, as you reflect that light beyond your own circle, you will truly be the hand of God. We pray for your reaching, we pray for your hands, we pray for your vision of others, and we pray for your openness and willingness to reflect all that is good.

Amen.

At this time, there are so many who are drawn by the tradition of the season to try to give what is loving to others. For countless individuals, what is loving gets translated to what can be purchased and given as gifts that can be packaged and presented in a physical manner to another. It is at this time of year that such attention to gifts should more appropriately be directed toward how you can give who you are to another.

Each of you knows how it feels when through sacrifice you do something which creates a strong and penetrating joy to another, for you see it in their eyes. You do not need words. The eyes are the window of the spirit, and when you look to the eyes, you know. Words are merely an adornment to a representation of others. What is important is how you become open to what the needs of another are, and your response.

The Christmas season may be a season of giving, but more importantly it is a season of understanding the true meaning of what it means to receive. We are not suggesting that Christmas is about getting. It is about giving, but more importantly being aware of what it means when another is receptive. You give, of course, because true giving is a reflection of love, but you give in faith that there is a receiving, that there is a recognition of being valued, of being loved, of being affirmed. You give spiritually to another. You may not know what that impact is, but the fact is you do not give to emptiness. You give to another. Remember, it is to another. There is a receiver of your gifts of love. Giving without an acknowledgment of the receiver is merely an exercise, but giving with an understanding that there is a receiver becomes a true act of faith.

When you pray to God, you pray as a way of listening and giving, but you pray in the faith that there is a God that receives your prayer. Conversely, you have faith that God gives to you—gives you strength, gives you balance, gives you courage, gives you comfort—but in believing that God provides this for you, you are also providing value to yourselves as being receivers of those gifts of love.

This time of the year is a celebration of giving and receiving. It is not so much the celebration of giving and getting. There is a difference between getting and receiving. Getting is all about the “me,” the “I.” Receiving is really an acknowledgement of a giver, and it is this approach that we wish you to understand.

When you express love toward another, another receives that love, and part of that reception is an acknowledgment, even nonverbally. When you pray for another, be open to evidence that that prayer has been answered. Be open to the reality that there is a recipient for your gift of prayer. When you feel strengthened by others, you are seeing yourselves as a recipient of the gifts of love and care offered by another. You don’t get healthy. You don’t get balance. You receive health, you receive balance, you receive love, you receive compassion. Getting often implies a sense of being entitled to something. You get paid. You don’t often consider that you receive payment. Receiving payment acknowledges the giver. Getting acknowledges mostly the person who is at the receiving end of something that is transferred.

At this time of the year, therefore, it is important to consider the blessing of giving and the blessing of receiving. Remove the concept of getting from your lives, for such approach is of no benefit, least of all for your own spiritual growth. But receiving acknowledges another, and it is in that acknowledgment that you grow, for you are acknowledging the presence of another and the loving expression of that presence.

Your guides provide you with an environment of love, with an environment of peace, with an environment that is totally nonjudgmental. Each of you in your way finds opportunity to receive what we offer. You don’t get what we offer, for in the receiving, you acknowledge the giver. You acknowledge our place as guides at the table of your own daily lives.

This concept of guides and the spiritual receiving that takes place is difficult to share with those who have no perspective of such a relationship. You spoke this evening of concerns about how to widen the existence of spiritual recognition and acknowledgment of the ongoing nature of spiritual enlightenment. This is done best in small groups rather than large collections, for in a small group there is more freedom to express viewpoints and differing perspectives. But such an exercise of sharing is always appropriate. It is not proselytizing. It is not trying to change people to your own perspective, but rather is an effort to expand others’ awareness of their perspectives.

You come to this environment with an openness, you come with inquisitiveness, but you don’t come with answers. The first stage to spiritual growth is an openness, and for many the greatest gift you can give to others is an example of openness. They develop through this openness. They develop that openness through their receiving your gifts. Each of you knows through your own experience there is no gain by the insistence that your views on spiritual life are the most appropriate. The normal reaction is to draw away. No one wishes to move through life feeling that their beliefs are being imposed. There is much effort to impose beliefs, but generally human beings feel that they believe because that’s what they believe, not because that is what they have been told. If you can give the gift of openness, then the environment is rich to expand the beliefs.

Spiritual growth is all about openness. It is all about listening. It is all about observing. It is all about nonjudgmental love. The distance that must be traversed for many from their own perspective to a broader perspective can be enormous. Indeed, for some in their current human life-form, it is insurmountable. But there is no requirement that that distance must be traversed within a given frame of time. God does not say you must learn this during a single human life.

All life is a process. All life has a direction to it. As we have often said and we reiterate again, life is not a race. There are no winners. Everyone finishes. Everyone reaches the goal. For some, it is in a single life. For others, it is in multiple human lives. For yet others, it is a combination of human lives and life-forms that you do not see and cannot hear, but that growth indeed persists and is unfailingly successful.

You will always encounter in your lives individuals who confront your reality with disbelief, and that is okay, for your gift to others is not the product of what you say to them. Your gift is who you are. It is how you live your lives as a reflection of your beliefs. That is the gift, and others will recognize that gift as they can. The broader viewpoint, the broader perspective that is achieved is what has been received, not what has been gotten. No one should shy away from an opportunity to share, but it is important in your sharing to recognize what it is you share, what it is you really give.

This season of the year is a reminder of the ultimate gift, the gift of love, the gift of being loving. That is the gift. That is what you celebrate. There are of course biblical stories of gifts, physical gifts, being presented, but those physical gifts are allegorical in nature. There are no truly physical gifts. They are gifts that represent what it means to offer love to another. This celebration that many have throughout the world should be a reminder of the gifts you really are celebrating, but that celebration cannot be limited to a few weeks in the calendar. That celebration should be an example of what it means to give always, and what it means to truly receive.

We have spoken often about the necessity to be vulnerable, the necessity to place yourself in a position in which you can receive the gifts of others. This vulnerability, which is an openness, is what is required to receive and not to get. Getting requires no vulnerability, no openness. Receiving requires it in abundance.

Each of you must concentrate on what it is you wish to give. You know it is love, but each of you has ways that are unique to you as to how that gift of love is transmitted to a receiver of that love. That’s what you seek. That’s what you seek at all times. For many, a list is made of what must be purchased for person one, person two, person three on the list. Make a list that each of you considers, and that list should include, “How do I give love to this person? How do I offer love to the next person? How do I offer love to yet another?” In doing so, you are strengthening the power of God. You are deepening the commitment of your spirit to the support of another. You are directing your lives, guided by love.

At the same time, make a list of how you can become more vulnerable. How can you become better receivers, more sensitive receivers? How can you become more aware of the gifts of others, the true gifts? In doing so, you transcend any religious and social traditions of giving physical gifts, and you join in very clear ways what we, your guides, give to each of you and what God gives to all of creation. You give and you receive. The bond that joins becomes strengthened and emits a light that illuminates all.

May that light be with each of you, now and always.

Amen.

You are bound to each other, not in a physical way but in a very profound spiritual sense, for you are united in a journey of growth, a journey of development that is outside the realm of time. This shared journey brings you together through your search for understanding.

Your paths are enmeshed even when you are not in one another’s company. Your lives have brought you to this condition, this way of expressing the energy of your spiritual commitments. We could say in a more comprehensible way that you have been brought to this point in time, that you are aware of one another’s journey of understanding.

Our last message with you dealt with concepts that are difficult to grasp. You are not going to fully understand the implications of all that we have shared, but we share these truths because we want you to understand that there is an energy to life that stretches far beyond what you can sense on a daily basis. You are, in fact, a small part of the totality of God.

God did not create the world in the way that you create a physical entity. You build a house with many rooms. You build a structure that contains many floors. You also conceive of a God that creates the world just as you know it, but the world is only a part of that creation. There are many worlds. There are many states of living. There are many conditions that are assigned to the reality you call “life.” And there are many conditions that belong to All That Is which reside beyond your single awareness of what is provided you through your senses.

What do you do with the knowledge we impart? If you understand somewhat the complexity of all that has been created, you will more readily acknowledge your close connection to all that comes within your awareness, whether it is the natural world around you or the neighbor next door. When you acknowledge that you and the natural environment are the same, when you acknowledge that you and the neighbor next door are the same, you approach a kind of awareness that is characterized by our form of spiritual energy. You are given this information, not for the purpose of understanding its every dimension, but rather to provide a context that consciously connects you with all that you do see and feel, hear and touch.

There are many life-forms that occupy the same space as what you see. These life-forms occupy the same present. They occupy the same place along the continuum of energy forms. We tell you there are other forms of life, other energy transformations, that exist with you regardless of how you identify your own location. These spirit-forms are always positive. You don’t live in a haunted house. You don’t live in an environment that is saturated with a threatening presence. All the conscious energy-forms that surround you share an awareness at some level or another of the Spirit Center you refer to as God.

There is much in common between your own life-form and theirs. There is an awareness of light. There is an awareness of heat and color. There is a common awareness of what surrounds you. These life-forms are dedicated to the development of spirit, just as you feel that same dedication.

There is nothing you can do specifically to see these life-forms, but it should suffice to know that they exist, that they are with you, inside of you, outside of you. They occupy what is the here and now. They don’t just sit quietly next to you, out of your vision, but they do influence your own actions when those actions reflect an understanding of the loving Spirit Center that is God. All life-forms that are other than what you can perceive are forms that you can welcome, that you can bring into your own acceptance if not your own awareness.

These nonhuman life-forms are characterized first through their spiritual strength; second, through their compassion, their giving, their supporting, their affirmations, their protection, their gift of recovery, their contributions to balance as we have described it.

You sometimes are aware of coincidences. There seems to be no logical explanation for why a surprising relationship in terms of occurrence is observed. What you identify as coincidence is frequently your awareness of the presence of other energy life-forms. You don’t identify that energy as another life-form, but you recognize its unexpected quality, and you say, “What a coincidence!” There is nothing truly unexpected by coincidence. What you identify as such is the meshing of various energies, spiritual energies, and that meshing is observed by you as an activity of coincidence. It seems perfectly appropriate, yet could not have been predicted.

There are many times when the spirits that are with you may assist you in such a manner that is unrecognized—your safety, your feeling, the patience you sometimes experience when others are impatient, the peace you feel when around you reigns chaos, the sense of direction that occurs to you when others may find such solution difficult. If you consider the reality of spiritual entities, invisible presences, the mere consideration is enough to acknowledge your true place in all that has been created. These spirit entities find interaction with you in so many ways.

Some of those entities are what you have come to acknowledge as your guides. We are not fundamentally different from you. We are not fundamentally different from all life-forms that have a consciousness of God. We are a part of that spiritual consciousness just as you are a part.

We share these concepts without consideration for the completeness of your understanding, but it is nevertheless important for you to have a glimpse of what lies beyond your senses. Just because you cannot see doesn’t mean we are not there. When you close your eyes, you are still in the company of friends. Even though you cannot see them, your vision has no bearing on the reality of their presence. Your lack of vision has no bearing on the reality of our existence or on the reality of other life-forms. You cannot go through your human experience limiting what you know to what your senses provide as direct evidence. You don’t see the air you breathe. You may see what the air contains, but you don’t see the air, and yet that air is essential for your human lives. You cannot see the clouds above you when it is dark unless you have special equipment to do so.

And so it is with these spiritual matters. You don’t see what we see without the equipment, but what is the equipment? Equipment is simply a total faith in the existence of what you cannot see. Believing firmly in that existence, you are better positioned to see what gives evidence of that presence. You don’t see goodness—you see the evidence of goodness. You don’t see anger—you merely see evidence of that anger. You see what you perceive to be something beautiful, but what you describe as beautiful may be quite threatening to someone else. You both observe the same entity and yet respond much differently.

It is this way with your spiritual perception. You don’t see spirit, but you see evidence of spirit. You don’t see love, but you see its evidence. You don’t see compassion. You can feel it, but you don’t see it.

And so it is in our energy-forms. We see you through your light. That is the evidence of you. It is not for us to see what you wear, for that is unimportant. It is not for us to see what you do as a career, for that has little impact except as you give evidence of what you are doing that enhances and affirms, uplifts and is loving. We then see that. If you build a house, that is not of importance to us, but we do see what that house that you build means to you. If you build that house for the purpose of serving others, we see that. If you build the house to provide shelter for yourselves, for your families, for your friends, for strangers, we see that, for the building is merely a reflection of a greater purpose, and it is that greater purpose that we do see.

It is this way with other life-forms that you cannot see who have an awareness of God. They don’t see what you wear, but rather how you are loving.

We emphasize so often the importance of your being loving, for that is what is permanent. That is what always remains. It is the love you express and how you express that love that is so important, because in that expression you are emerging as a loving entity, and it is that loving quality, however it is expressed, that remains permanent.

You are not alone. You see others who share an energy-form that is human, but those energy-forms you cannot see because they are not human are aware of you only as you bring your concepts of a loving God into the arena of your very human daily lives.

You learn by sharing. You learn by sharing between these energy fields. You learn by sharing with other human beings. You learn by sharing with your spirit guides. You learn by reaching out to share with that portion of God that you perceive. You learn to be loving. You learn to become more aware of what it means to be alive.

We, your guides, are always with you on that journey. Be assured that all that we see of each of you is that which reflects the loving presence of God. When you are surrounded by negative feelings, regrets, remorse, guilt, shame, fear, that negative energy does not radiate a brilliance. That negative energy is not a reflection of the loving presence of God, and therefore has no presence in our awareness of you. We see all in you that is positive, all that is godly. We pray for its growth. We work for its growth. We communicate with you for the purpose of its growth. We see what you do that leads towards peace, towards compassion, towards all that you associate with being loving, for it is those qualities that endure. The negative experiences that you have, the negative thoughts that you have—all that seems to run counter to a loving God is ultimately cast aside and is obliterated. It no longer exists.

As we have said before, there is no judgment day because there is no judgment. There is only an acknowledgment of all that is loving. We love each of you for all that you are that is becoming loving. We see your growth. We see the evidence of your searching. All of these other God-conscious life-forms are aware only of that, and it is for this reason that we emphasize the essential importance of being nonjudgmental, for when you are nonjudgmental, you cast aside what is negative, and you lift up all that is loving.

We ask you to seek peace, to seek an understanding of your relationship to all forms of energy that you acknowledge. We ask you to apply in your lives what you know to be true, and to cast away concerns about all that is negative that you see in others as well as in yourselves. True happiness is an acknowledgment of what is good. When you seek peace, you seek happiness. You seek balance, and that balance is life-affirming when it is focused on what is good, what is loving in all of its manifestations.

Be refreshed by God’s loving Light.

Amen.

Human beings continue always to be fascinated with life beyond life, for it is for everyone the great unknown. You acknowledge a desire to develop faith in the existence of such life—the lives that we experience—and yet each of you has in your mind that sense of questioning, the sense of wondering what lives that you currently experience lead to. Where do your lives go? Where do they carry you? Why life? And you wonder about the true nature of the extension of life to come.

All human beings are part of a continuum—a continuum of life, a continuum of curiosity, a continuum of awareness, a continuum of some form of love. Your awareness of that condition that you currently experience varies from individual to individual and within your own lives from moment to moment. There are times when you are filled with faith, and there are other times when you are filled with doubt.

You wonder about the return of life from our side to your condition, from our sphere to your sphere. It is a question of reincarnation. If you accept the fact that there is no time, then you can begin to understand the impact, the meaning, of our instruction, our guidance to you, when we say as you wonder about your loved ones, whether they are reincarnated or whether they are still with us, we can say in all truth that both are a reality. There is no future. There is only what is. There is no time, as you measure it, but when you ask about such realities as reincarnation, you ask from the perspective of time, and we can say with all clarity that souls do experience more than one opportunity to learn through the human experience.

But the same souls also experience a rebirth in other life-forms that you have no awareness of. You do not reincarnate into a dog or a tiger. You do not reincarnate into a plant or a tree. You are given human life because there are lessons to be learned that can only be done in your life-form, but it is also true that there are other lessons to be learned as part of soul growth that take place in different life-forms.

You may wonder about the condition of family members and good friends that you have come to know and love. Are they with us or with you? There is no difference in space. There is no differentiation, as we have said, between being with us and with you. There is a difference of energy, a different form of energy, but no spirit, no soul, is totally with us and not with you. The souls of those you love are always with you, and therefore always with us. We could say they are with us, and therefore always with you.

The question of reincarnation as human beings perceive it is one of re-experiencing the energy that you know as human energy. The truth is that energy is constantly changing. A soul who experiences life within the context of your physical life experiences a very different type of life when associated with another human being. You cannot rightly say “so and so is clearly my late brother, someone else is clearly my late father or sister or mother,” for what the soul requires is now different. What you learn in your own physical being as a spirit is different from what is learned when associated so intimately with another human being.

If you wonder whether the spirit of one who has joined our spirit plane is again experiencing human life, we can say yes for some, no for others. But we can always, always assure you that there is a distinct level of consciousness, of awareness—of awareness of being alive, awareness of growth, awareness of development, direction, awareness of benefitting from the love of another and from an experience of being loving. No spirit, no soul, exists unconsciously. No spirit is totally asleep, as you think of sleep being a lack of consciousness. The spirit, the soul, experiences an awareness of self and an awareness of what is around, of who is around.

The spirit therefore continues a consciousness. That consciousness is experienced through human form, but also through other forms. As human beings you are only aware of one very thin plane of life, but life consists of an infinite number of layers, each layer dependent on others. There is no layer that is considered supreme or better than another, but each layer of life is different. Each layer has its own consciousness.

Those whom you have loved in human life remain aware of you. They remain aware of your love. They remain aware of your growth, your development. Your light is a visible presence to all spirits. Regardless of what plane of spiritual energy they may be experiencing, that plane of energy is permanently connected to all other planes. There is no distance, literally or figuratively, between these layers of life.

You as human beings are aware of only one plane of existence, and you seek to grow in your understanding of others. That is entirely appropriate, for you are asked to associate human life with a connectivity to all that you are aware of, but you must also understand that there are many other types of existence that human beings are incapable of perceiving. These other life-forms are not implied to be on other planets around the universe. There is indeed much life in the universe, but the types of life-forms we speak of also exist within your own space, your own sense of planet, your own sense of solar system. There are other life-forms that exist in your home, where you work, where you walk. There is much that is unseen, but it is not necessary for you to see all that exists. God provides you with an awareness that is appropriate for you as individuals and as a collective.

Have your parents reincarnated, and by your parents we refer to all parents? Yes, in that they are all filled with a consciousness that speaks of the Spirit Center, that speaks of the truth of your own lives. There is no period of spiritual growth that remains in the dark. All is to be seen from the spirit.

The question was raised about how human beings are made sensitive to the presence of guides. The souls that are your essence are part of this continuum of growth, of development, of affirmation. Souls who experience human life frequently feel the connection more intimately between human energy and the spirit energy that is our experience. If you consider for a moment what it means to travel between two very different cultures, if you experience both cultures frequently, then it is not a stretch to understand something of one culture while being immersed in the life of the other. If you have never experienced a given kind of life, then it is more difficult to acknowledge the link between both.

Having said that, we also want to reiterate that each of you is guided. Each of you has experienced those nudges, those gut feelings that something must be done or that a certain condition is being encountered. Everyone has that capability, and that ability is no less than the ability of those whose spirits have traversed these different energy forms frequently. It is not a matter of strength of spirit that differentiates those who communicate easily with us. It is a matter of experience. It is a kind of remembering that takes place at a very deep level. But all have the ability. All benefit. All have some means to be guided in a way that benefits others.

You can choose to participate, to acknowledge, to listen, to be aware, or you can choose to ignore out of disbelief or a fear that such engagement is purely human-made and not God-made. But those are your choices. If you are open, you will receive the guidance you seek.

As you experience the learning that takes place through multiple human lives, you find it easier to slip, as it were, between both energy forms with little effort. There is no other qualification. There is no other element that differentiates those who feel comfortable in various energy forms and those who are less receptive. Your human lives are characterized by growth. Some of that growth may be developing the ease, the faith, the peace that provides the bridge you seek.

Your guides understand human life, for we have experienced it. We have also experienced other life-forms, and because of our experience, we are able to focus your souls on the loving light that is God’s presence.

Trust in this unity of existence—multiple energy forms belonging to the same entity, multiple consciousnesses that exist simultaneously. Acknowledge who is next to you, recognizing that each is an extension of the other. Acknowledge your environment as an extension one from the other. Commit yourselves to the unity of which we speak. Have faith in the reality of many life-forms, many kinds of consciousness, many levels of awareness, and be grateful and humble when your awareness extends beyond yourselves. You are part of the universe, a uni-verse, a singleness of existence having many components, but all belonging to one, mainly each other, collectively embraced by the loving light and presence that is God.

You are blessed in your awareness. You are blessed in your peace. You are blessed in your vision. You are blessed in your seeking. We are united with you through the loving light of God.

Amen

At our last gathering, we spoke much of our relationship to you and your relationships to us. But it is the wish of the Spirit Center that is God that you understand more about your relationship to God and God’s relationship to you.

Human beings are always prone to a description of God in human terms. You talk about God’s love. There has been much written that talks of God’s judgment, God’s anger, of the weakness of humankind, of the ultimate strength and power and force of God. Much has been written about a God who is loving to a select few. There has been much written about those who are in some way saved at the expense of others. So much has been said of God. So much has been written about God, written as if the author had full and perfect knowledge of who God is, filled with human characteristics.

We are here to explain in terms that are designed for you that God is not a human being who looks out upon creation and says it is good or it is bad. God does not select some to be saved and others to be damned. There is not in reality a God that sits in judgment. You will not be brought before God as a human-like presence for the purpose of evaluating whether you deserve the goodness that is God or the punishment that is a lack of God. There is no judgment in God. God is not about being disappointed or pleased, as these characteristics are so human in their form. God is beyond a sense of human characteristics.

God is a power, a strength, a presence. The closest that human beings can understand of what God is is for us to reiterate what you have heard countless times: God is love—not God is loving—God is love. To the extent that you become love, you become a part of what God is. This love is in fact a connection to all that has been created. It is a power that unites everything together.

When you acknowledge a tree in the woods, and you acknowledge its beauty, its power, its size, its resilience, its importance to your environment, its importance merely because it is, you are loving that tree for what it is, not for what it isn’t. You are not loving it because you can take from it as you wish. You are loving it merely because it is. You feel in that moment your connection to that tree. If you can feel such a connection to a tree, can you not also feel a close connection to every human being that you encounter?

Somehow humankind is selective in what it considers important, worthy of being loved. There is no selectivity in the sense of God’s relationship to All That Is. There is no selectivity between a blade of grass and an animal across the globe. Both exist, both belong. You belong, the animals of the field belong, the grasses of the world belong. It is this connectedness of All That Is that is reality, a presence that you seek as you call out to God.

God exists, not just in the fact that everything exists, for everything needed to begin. Everything has a sense of evolution. Human beings are part of that evolution. They’re not necessarily at the top, but they are a part of the process. You are a part of the process. This process of evolving means the process of growth. Evolution is merely growth and adaptation and reconciliation.

We ask you to reconcile with one another, to find common ground, to find what unites you, not what divides you. What unites you ultimately is a part of the reality of what God is. God is love, but love which is a power which unites everything together. When all recognize such unity, there is only peace. There is only a sense of continuity. There is only a sense of belonging. Life always continues, and life always evolves.

As people prepare to enter our life-form, you often refer to it as a transition, and that is what it is. There is no end; there is only change. You experienced transition in birth; you experience transition in death. But birth is not a beginning. Birth is merely a physical incarnation of change that is taking place. Life begins long before conception. Life continues after what you perceive to be death. Consciousness, when understood as an awareness of all that is around you, continues. There is no change that stops such awareness, but merely transforms and expands that awareness. That awareness really is a sense of being One.

We do not see you as something far separate from us. You do not see your hand as a separate entity from who you see yourselves to be. God, the power of love, the communion of love, does not see you as being separate and needing to be deserving of love. You belong to All That Is. You belong to all that continues.

When you were mere young children, you were not different in terms of the essence of who you are. You were not different from what you currently are. You have changed, of course, but you are the same person. You have an identity which continues beyond childhood, and that identity remains with you in adulthood. That identity is also a part of what you bring to our level, our phase, our stage of life. Yes, you go through changes from childhood to adulthood, but you are really in essence no different. You have evolved. You have become deeper. You have become more understanding, but you are what you were, and you are what you will be.

God, the Spirit Center, the Center of all consciousness, the Center of all harmony, of all peace, is aware of your own continuity. God, as the Spirit Center, is aware that you are precisely the same as you were at birth, as you were before birth. It is your perspective that changes, but you are what you have always been, and you must believe you are what you will always be. There is no beginning. There is no end. There is just change, balanced with the continuity that you are what you are. This continuity is characteristic of God.

God seeks balance. God means balance. God assists in balance—balance emotionally, balance spiritually, balance physically. All that you seek that you perceive to be good is precisely a descriptor of what it is that you and we refer to as God. You are elevated through God. You’re uplifted, you’re supported because God is the creative power, the creative energy that has given you human life. The nature of your lives may change, but the nature of the creative spirit, of the peaceful presence, of the uplifting support that is God does not change in substance. But God does grow as you become more compassionate, as you become more loving. As you resemble more and more what it means to be love, you are increasing all that God is.

You cannot destroy God. You can deny the existence of a Spirit Center, if that is your choice, but that has no effect on the reality which is God Is, and therefore You Are. You Are because God Is. You are in a state of becoming so that you may be God. It is not a statement of arrogance to assert that each of you is God. It is a statement of fact. The hand that you see is a part of you. You and the hand belong together. Your feet and your hands have different purposes, but they belong to the same organism, the same entity, the same reality. The context may be different, but in reality the totality is one person. Your feet, your hands, your heart, your brain all are differentiated, and yet all belong to a single entity.

You belong to the entity that is God. You belong to all that is created, and you belong to all that belongs to the Creator, for all that is created is the Creator. God does not just create what you see with your senses. God is you. God is what is created. God is the force of creation. God is the continuity of all that exists. You are a part of that web of unity.

When people claim that they have been chosen by God for a particular purpose, those may be arguments that have validity for those who hold them. But in fact, there is nothing that is chosen, that is somehow exclusionary, for God does not exclude, but rather includes.

All That Is belongs—all that you see and hear and taste and touch. All that you are aware of belongs. But also, all that you are not aware of—other life-forms that you have spoken of. All belong. All are a part of God. You are in no way separated from a living entity somewhere else in the heavens. You may not be aware of one another, you may not sense another’s existence, but you and the other both belong to the web of creation. You are therefore both a part of God. You both have a capacity to be loving, as we define loving to be totally accepting without judgment and with mutual concern for the uplifting of another.

All That Is is in part God. That simple statement means that each of you belongs to one another. If you treat another with abuse, you are abusing yourselves. You are abusing the whole concept of God. You cannot turn your back to God, therefore you cannot turn your back to your fellow human being. You cannot turn your back to your environment that sustains you. You must always acknowledge, and in acknowledging, you are reaching out and touching God.

God’s compassion is not a compassion of human form, but rather is a caring for All That Is. You sense God’s caring because you exist. The more aware you are of your lives, the more of God you can perceive, and you will soon recognize that God is all around you. God is not in a kind of heaven that is above you. We are not in a kind of heaven that is above you. We are inside you, we are next to you, we are looking down upon you, we are looking up to you, we are looking inward to you. There is virtually no space between you and us, and as a result, since both you and we are part of the creation of the Spirit Center, there is no distance between you and anything you perceive in your lives. Distance, the concept of distance, of separateness, has been created through your brain as a way of orienting one part of your evolutionary life. But the reality is there is no separation, either between you and your surroundings, or you and us, your guides, or you and God, the Spirit Center.

God comforts because the natural state of everything is balance, and balancing and being balanced are the antithesis of pain and suffering. So seek balance. Seek an acknowledgment of what is. Seek a vision that includes you as an equal partner in what has been created. In so doing, you will see God more clearly. You will hear God more clearly, and you will find yourselves transforming from being loving to Love.

You are blessed in that vision. You are blessed in the unity with God and with one another.

Amen.