The Anne Report, Halloween, reminds us that humor at Halloween time can help us replace some of our usual somberness. The Main article, Re-Joy-Ce, reminds us that Joy is always available to us in the Now moment, regardless of our circumstances. The Healthy Living article, It's a Date, recounts the benefits of eating dates and provides a recipe for your enjoyment. The Anne Talk is Happy Wait Day. Learn about Anne's newest book: The Living Book. The Featured Product this month is Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic. Click to read What is EZosophy?

The EZ Mantra: "Everything can be EZ or at least EZier." -- Anne Sermons Gillis

Living EZosophy, October 31, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 281-419-1775
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

Halloween

Dear ,

Today is the day when young people and old people alike dress in some pretty cool outfits and enter into the world of make believe. Young girls can be Cinderella. My grand twins will be firemen, and I'll put on a black wig and pointed hat and answer our door pretending to be a witch.

I once took a friend from Bulgaria to the bank on Halloween. He did his business and afterwards pointed at the clerk and said, "Is this normal dress for a bank?" The teller was dressed like Margaret Gomez from the Addams family. Other tellers were in costume as well. I looked up, then realized that he was unfamiliar with American Halloween customs. It was a Laugh-In moment.

Halloween gives us pause. It allows us to escape the terminal seriousness of our culture. We've been absolutely and ceremoniously serious. Sincerity is a desirable quality, but seriousness, not so much.

I love to break the unwritten rule that "Life is serious." Once I walked from my gate at the airport to baggage claim alongside a two-foot high bright pink, hairy marionette that looked like ET. This was a precious little guy. Some people smiled at us, some diverted their eyes, some were oblivious, and some people engaged in conversation. This was in Washington, D.C., a place full of seriousness. At the time I wanted to establish a new committee on joy, and I wanted to be the congressional Court Jester. I was jesting, of course, but my idea always brought up interesting dialogue.

Today is the day that we have license to break from the ritual somberness of life. Put on your costume, and if you don’t have a costume, then just smile.

As for what I’ve been up to, I was blown away Friday night when I attended the installation ceremony of Rev. Michael Gott as the senior minister at Unity of Houston. And it's always a pleasure to see Rev. Edwene Gaines, who spoke at Unity Circle of Light on Sunday morning and gave a rousing workshop. She's a master teacher of prosperity. Here’s an example from her life. She was not able to deliver her sermon one Sunday because she was snowed in and church services were cancelled. She needed money to make her payroll, and, knowing that God always delivers, she went into prayer. She had the urge to walk to a local casino. When she arrived, she inserted a few coins, hit the jackpot, and won $10,000. As some say, "God (Good) works in mysterious ways." Edwene says, "Sometimes you have to get off your assets and take action."

I take a short trip to Nacogdoches tomorrow to spend the day with my friend on her birthday, and then I'm back home for a couple of weeks. That's it for the Anne Report.

  Main Article

Re-Joy-Ce

Most of the following was written in my journal on February 12th, 2010. Reading my old journals was interesting, since I was reading a seven-year-old journal.

I get so buzzed when I read what I've written; it's more like bedazzled. When I read words from the past, words that, by some twist of fate, found their way through my mind, I relax. The words act like an anchor that pulls deep and locks onto that which is stable and permanent. Even though words hold no permanence, they can point to that which always is. The "Is" is present, but, unfortunately, it is mostly overlooked. Our minds go for glamour.

I read a story this morning about an Australian billionaire who decided to give away his fortune. He thinks money is counterproductive. He believes that money stands in the way of happiness. He doesn't understand that we use every situation, all thoughts and beliefs, to come between us and that ever Everlasting Peace. I want to write and tell him not to give it away. Well, at least not all of it! The lack of money might bring a temporary hiatus. Just simplifying one's life helps, but be assured, our minds stalk us, whether we are in wealth or poverty. The stealthiness of our problematic thinking penetrates our lives. Until we undo the mechanism that hypnotizes the mind, we fall prey to mental fanaticism.

Imagine you sell your home and donate most of your money to charity. You move to the Amazon Jungle to help others. You meet some poor people. They are in dire straits. You help them out. Your concern for their well-being becomes a way of life. Perhaps you're even happy with this life and change of scenery, but eventually you realize you are the same reactive person you were before. You are upset with the cutter ants and lack of electricity. You are tired of everything and wonder why you made this change. While money and fame never made you happy, neither does poverty and reclusiveness. No matter which side the flipped coin lands on, wealth and fame or the ordinary life, neither brings happiness. Happiness occurs when we clear the mind so that we can experience ever present joy.

The human species has still to learn this lesson: the experience of joy has nothing to do with having or not having money or having or not having anything. One can be healthy and miserable or sick and happy. Happiness is an independent activity. Any time we change activities to create happiness, we're fooling ourselves. When we've achieved our goal, we might be happy because we've dropped desire, but the happiness was there all the time. It was just hidden under our desire. The joy of life is now and only now. The joy of being occurs despite poverty or wealth, regardless of status, lack of status, pain, health, wealth, or poverty. I love Catherine Ponder's affirmation, "No person, event, or circumstance can stand in the way of my good.” And, as far as I'm concerned, my good is wrapped in joy.

Changing life situations may be called for. Certainly, developing a healthy lifestyle and not working ourselves like machines, have some physical and emotional benefits. So, make those changes, but be aware, those are surface changes, because what we truly are, needs no change; it only needs recognition.

No need to stress out about missed opportunities. No need to overwork ourselves to attain wealth or recognition. The ingredients for a happy life are provided right now. The joy channel is always operating. It's up to us to tune into the joy channel. When depressed people read a list of depressing words, they start feeling worse in just a few seconds. Enlivening words, such as happy, fortunate, joy, love, and peace, can make us feel better. Take the word joy, happiness, or happy and focus on it for 60 seconds. You can speak it out loud, write it over and over, or think of breathing in joy and breathing out joy. You might think, for 60 seconds, about blessing your loved ones with joy. See unlimited, endless joy coming from your magic wand and showering your life or the lives of your loved ones. Any one of these exercises tunes us into joy. NOW is always the time to shift from the viewpoint that life is broken, to the direct and now experience of joy. People long to be called to something greater. They want to serve others. Right now, since you are reading this, this is your calling. Joy is greater! Let's stop right now and tune into joy, because when we do, it makes our lives, EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Quotes

"Hopefully the confusion is diffused! Illusion is in profusion, and awareness dispels mental pollution. In conclusion, may you be blessed with the solution."
-- Anne Sermons Gillis (My attempt at being silly!)

"A book should act as an axe to the frozen sea within us."
-- Franz Kafka

"Emptiness, which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness, is, in fact, the reservoir of infinite possibilities."
-- D. T. Suzuki

"Analyze your mistakes. You've already paid the tuition. You might as well get the lesson."
-- Tim Fargo

  The Living Book

Learn more about The Living Book, by Anne Sermons Gillis.
Paperback $5.00. PDF Download $0.99. Kindle Book $2.99.

  Featured Product This Month

  Healthy Living

It's a Date

I love dates. I like them plain and often use them as a sweetener in my natural fudge and my raspberry torte. They offer a wonderful alternative to sugar, but I didn't know how healthy they were until recently. Did you know that dates are full of fiber, potassium, copper, manganese, magnesium, and vitamin B6? Eat three dates per day and you will soon be able to fly. Okay, maybe not fly, but there are many situations that dates can help.

Dates:

• Clean out the intestines, alleviate constipation, and promote bowel health. While this doesn't seem exciting, it may be more exciting than you've imagined. Research shows the importance of gut health. The messages from the gut are so influential in running the body's system, that the gut is often referred to as the second brain. It is a command center for the body.
• Are anti-inflammatory.
• Reduce blood pressure.
• Reduce risk of stroke.
• Increase brain health.
• Help prevent colon cancer.
• Help to promote natural labor in pregnancy, when eaten daily for four weeks prior to delivery.

I'm sold on dates. Here's one of my favorite recipes for dates.

Easy Date Candy

10 dates
1/2 cup of pecans or walnuts
Semi-sweet chocolate

Melt chocolate in small container. It's easier to dip the dates when the chocolate is deeper. Slit date and take out the pit. Stuff with a nut. Dip one or both ends in melted chocolate and place on parchment paper to harden. Then eat.

Makes a hit as a dessert. This is one of those desserts that is so simple and easy to make that it's hard to believe how scrumptious it is.

If you have any healthy living tips for the newsletter, send them to me at anne@annegillis.com.

  Anne Talks

Happy Wait Day

Today's Anne Talk is the Happy Wait Day. Time: 5:00.

  Anne Art

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The World's Best Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

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