A Note From Anne

Dear ,

  Progressions

In 1998 I had an awakening. It was not the kind of experience where I woke up to who I was. It was a direct inner knowing that I was moving from Memphis to Houston, Texas. So many times I had asked for guidance on the next step. This time I wasn't even asking for guidance. When I woke up that morning I was excited because 3,000 copies of my first book, Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic, were arriving at my office that day. Back in those days, self-publishing was not nearly as easy as it is today. There were proofs, layered artwork boards for the cover, and activities not yet perfected by computer generated printing. Much labor had gone into this book.

When I arrived at my office, I started feeling antsy. I thought I would be happy, with the work completed, but I was unsettled. I thought I should meditate, but all I wanted to do was call my friend, Mer, who lived in the Houston area. I called, and after a few minutes she said, "Why don't you move to Houston? Elizabeth no longer lives in Memphis; you are free to go." Her statement almost knocked me down, there was such power behind it, and before we hung up, I felt centered and calm. I knew I would move to the Houston area. It took seven months of planning. I closed my church, sold my house, packed up a Penske rental, and drove to Texas with my dog and cat.

Things fell into place as if I had a magician as an event planner. Two weeks after I arrived, I met Jim. He was the one I thought might be the one. I wrote the following piece soon after I arrived. I was defining myself in my new environment. I had come from a community where I was well-known, and I had so many long time, supportive friends. Now I was in Texas, an unknown. I had flimsy plans. I was no longer an every Sunday kind of minister. There were no roles to define me, and I was in love. Love can be fun, but it also feels like soaring and falling at the same time – not to mention feeling drugged with giddiness.

The following is from the journal of a woman who had just lost her place in life, who was drunk on love, and who had to figure out, at 50 years old, how to make a living.

I am undergoing an experiment. Will life support me if I let it? If I stay in the moment, will each succeeding now be enough? Will I give up the need to be guided anywhere because there is nowhere to go? Can I give up the need to have things different because I know deeply that the world of satisfaction is not reached through self improvement? Can I give up the need for change and variety long enough to undo my inability to see what is already here. What is here is enough, but because of my conditioning, I look outside to others, to the possibility of money bringing freedom, and to success as a conductor of happiness.

I cannot fault myself for this journey. True, I have frequent failures. I have enough frequent failure points to take my mind anywhere in the land of doom and gloom. Even free trips are often too expensive. I can no longer afford the luxury of self criticism. It eats away at my aliveness. The mind can be like a reckless drive. I get in my mind, turn it on, and then go for a ride, but it's not a joy ride. I become a reckless thinker and my reality crashes. I believe that life is a series of problematic occurrences that need fixing. Oh, what an endless web we weave when once we practice mental disease. Mental dis-ease is a practice, and I have gotten so good at it that I forget there's any other way of perceiving. I suffer from perception deception.

So it's true, "I am not soaring away into the boundless bliss of infinite love," but I am soaring. I have acted on the courage to free myself of the structures that had become my prison. I am roaming in a life that is more dictated by wants than by needs. I have met the challenge of my heart and have become open to new love.

When I was young it was so easy to surrender to love. I did not know who I was.There wasn't much to give up or to give from. I gave myself in order to become someone. Now I know who I am, and so when I surrender, I give into much more than hoping I will become someone. I know I am already someone. Now I give into allowing that I can become even more if my heart is open. I have known how to be who I was when alone; now the risk is the vulnerability of being myself in the presence of one who can see me.

I am both honored and afraid of this journey into intimacy. Sometimes my mind spins in a mad dance of potential outcomes. I get dizzy and spin out of control. Other times I rest in a deep contentment. I am intoxicated when I look into my lover's mind and heart. There is excitement in the newness, but as I glimpse the holiness of the daily encounter, my mind relaxes. I watch the tea cup brush his lips and feel the gentleness of his willing embrace. These things are becoming familiar, but none the less they are sacred. I have heard that familiarity breeds contempt, but who can look upon the sun closing her eyes and not be touched again and again? So it is with him and me, those familiar things I long to see and repeat a thousand times.

It's now almost 15 years later, and I can hardly recall my old life. I have lived in three homes and that Jim guy and I were married in 2003. My cat found a new home because that guy was allergic to cats. I got another dog and both dogs died from old age. We have a Lucy dog now. We're in Costa Rica this week relaxing.

Anne

  Health Tip: Cleaning Stains

Okay, this is not really a health tip. It is a cleaning tip. My friend, Cathy Mackenzie, told me her secret about getting stains out of clothes. Take undiluted hydrogen peroxide and put it on your spot. Let it dry. I have a tee shirt that has been washed and dried several times with some light brown stains. I dabbed each spot with peroxide and let it dry. I did this several times and now I can hardly see the spots. My previous solution was to wear the shirt backward. Then I couldn't see the spots either. Of course, I just wore it around the house, but if I did go out for a walk, I don't think anyone was looking at my back.

  Anne's Books

Standing in The Dark

EZosophy Book

Offbeat Prayers

Click here to see all three of Anne's books

What people are saying about Standing in the Dark:

"Standing in the Dark, by Anne Sermons Gillis, isn't just another positive thinking book. It's a book about the difficult times in life and what we can do to make it through them. It does, however, give us positive ways to make life easier. It's a short book, but it's one that may just turn your thinking on its head, which will probably be the best thing that's happened to your thinking in a long time. It's about how to bring more ease into a life that isn't easy all of the time. Anne discusses six main areas of life: Ease, Mission, Health, Relationships, Money, and Loss."
  – Charles David Heineke, Bonham, TX

What people are saying about EZosophy: The Art and Wisdom of Easy or at Least Easier Living:

"Although most conscious people understand that life doesn't have to a struggle, the "how to" has been missing... until now. Anne's book makes it "easy."
  – T. Harv Eker - Bestselling author and Founder of Peak Potentials Training

What people are saying about Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic:

"I love your book. It is filled with much wisdom, humor and heart. Really beautiful."
  – Alan Cohen author, Enough Already, mentions Anne and EZosophy on page 99

  Quotes

"Time doesn't really disappear when a mystic has an appointment to get her teeth cleaned at 3 PM. She will show up at 3 PM. When I say time dissolves, that is true and not true too. Time for spiritually advanced people disappears or it does not show up like a psychological burden.”
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

"My grandfather said he felt sorry for a person who could only spell one way. See where I get my humor? It’s in my jeans. Yep. He was a farmer.”
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

"The closer we get to the end of our present evolutionary stage, the more dysfunctional the ego becomes, in the same way that a caterpillar becomes dysfunctional just before it transforms into a butterfly. But the new consciousness is arising even as the old dissolves."
  – Neale Donald Walsch talking to Eckhart Tolle

  EZosophy CD/DVD Spotlight

Each week in this space we'll be featuring one of Anne's CD's or DVD's. Click the link below to learn more.

The Easy Disciple DVD: Eliminating Ego Driven Struggle

The Easy Disciple DVD: Eliminating Ego Driven Struggle Two talks by Anne given at Unity Churches. If you don’t know yet that your life can be easier, Anne Sermons Gillis will knock your socks off. A great value at $39.95, now reduced so that everyone can benefit from this powerful information. NOW $9.99 plus $1 for Shipping when shipped alone http://www.annegillis.com/Books-CDs-Etc.html#Prosperity

  What is EZosophy?

What is EZosophy? Click the graphic above to find out.

NOTE: If you are viewing this on a cell phone, be sure to scroll to the right to see the other column.

  Anne's Services

  Schedule Anne

You may reach Anne by phone at 281-419-1775 or click the button below to contact Anne by email. Anne is also available to officiate at weddings and funerals.

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  Anne's Schedule

October 13, 2013
Sun., 11:00 AM
"Discovery"
Unity Church of Practical Christianity
15920 Piper’s View Dr.
Meadow Community Association
Webster, TX 77598-2550

  Anne Talks

Happy Fully Alive Day

Watch this 1.5 minute Affirmation of Life video.

Jan

Dear Jan,

Make out a list of ten things you love to do or have always dreamed of doing. Then do them. If you still have no idea what you want to do with your life when you finish these ten, make out a new list of ten more and do them. If you want to do things you think you cannot do, find what part of your desire you can make happen. When I was in my 40's I used to travel around the world trying to make a difference. When I ran out of funding, my thirst for making a difference didn't dull. I watched the papers and found events that linked me to the world right where I was living. I attended a luncheon where the keynote speaker was a foreign ambassador. I attended an African Trade seminar that set me on a course to work with two African countries in creating cultural exchanges between Memphis and their countries.

I had a friend who didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. She was very old and said God must have a reason for her to be living. I told her that, at 85, she better not wait for God to tell her what to do – she better go ahead and make up something and just do it. Of course, if she got some divine guidance, she could stop what she was doing and do her divinely appointed task. She never did receive that guidance.

If you don't know what you want to do with your life, you can make informed choices about what to do with your time. Of course, you will be the informant.

Thanks for asking.

Annie G

NOTE: Send your questions on life, health, food, spirituality, and relationships to Annie G.

  Anne Art

I made this painting with
Kaleidoscope Drawing Pad on my iPad.
Click the image to see a larger image.

  I made this painting with
Kaleidoscope Drawing Pad on my iPad.
Click the image to see a larger image.

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Editor/Publisher: Charles David Heineke of TheDoorwayBlog.

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