A Note From Anne

Dear ,

Sunday Jim and I rode around to capture the local Texas bluebonnet magic. Even though there are other wildflowers blooming, nothing can rival the bright blue expanses of the bluebonnets. If you squint your eyes, you can see fairies! Honest.

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Texans love the bright blue flowers. It's common to see professional and amateur photographers trying to capture the enchanted flowers. People write about them, tell stories about them, and relay the best places to spot the bright blue mystical plant life. Bluebonnet season takes on the frenzy of March Madness. If someone is new to the area, they get the Bluebonnet talk. It is sacrilegious not to make a bluebonnet pilgrimage.

Saturday I worked with my plants for an hour. Just the feel of the earth, my black-stained fingers – every activity outside - so healing. I rode my bike for about an hour too. I could feel the energy moving through me. Getting back to nature is like adding herbs to marinara sauce. The sauce is not saucy until it gets those herbs. It is that stop and smell the roses time of year and I love it.

Anne

Talk about bluebonnets, listen to this whole song which mentions bluebonnets, and if you don’t have time for the song, go to these minute marks, 1:31, 2:11, 2:31, and 2:49. for amazing bluebonnet pictures.

  When Not to Help Others

Last week I wrote about supporting others. Helping others is one of the most generous and inspiring contributions we make to life, but when does helping others become a detriment?

Don’t help others:

• When it puts you in danger. Use your common sense. Don’t pick up strangers and give them a ride. I have a friend who offered a woman at the airport a place to stay for one night. It didn't take long to realize the woman was literally crazy. She wouldn't leave the next day or the next. It took extreme measures to get her out of the house.
• When it makes the other person dependent on you and usurps the person's power. This is really codependency. It is an agreement between two broken people. It is an oath of helplessness. "You can get your value from taking care of me and I'll get the love and attention and care my parents never gave me from you."
• When you can't afford it. Don't give someone money when you can't pay your own bills. I knew someone who borrowed money from their credit cards in order to tithe. This is not only sad, it is sick.
• When it protects others from the consequences of their behavior. Parents too often take away the consequences of their children's action. If the child frivolously spends their allowance, don’t give them anymore until it's time for their next allowance. Children need to learn how to manage money. Don't bail your brother out of jail the second time he gets a DUI. The first time maybe – but the second time – no. This is enabling, not helping.
• When you are too sick and tired to help (unless it's your child and you’re the main caretaker.)  If a child runs into the street, of course help, even if you are sick, but skip helping with a community project when you are not physically well. Life will continue on course without your continual assistance.

Codependency is a disease. It may look like helping, but it’s not. Years ago, a friend told me to make myself indispensable to others. This would ensure they would never leave me. This was actually a recipe for codependency. The following codependency prayer is an excerpt from my book, Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic.

Co-dependency Prayer*

God, grant me the grace to let others have their addictions, upsets, and imperfections, without trying to fix them, change them, or solve their problems. Give me the courage to say "No" when I want to and the wisdom to reach out for help when I am in denial. Heal my need to please others or control them. Help me to accept with serenity my imperfections. Open my vision so that I know I am precious, and make me aware that my expression is valuable. Amen.  *©1989 Easy Times Press

What I Expect

When I receive support from you, I want you to help me from your compassion. I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I am a competent person going through a tough time. I want you to walk with me; I don’t need you to drag me to safety. I don't want you to help me because you feel guilty. If you do it because of guilt, it's the same as coercion; it's inner coercion. I don't want to suck the life out of you. If you don’t feel like doing something for me or can't, don't do it.

When I help you I want you to know not to expect me to help you all the time. I will help you when I can afford to – when my mental, emotional, and spiritual bank accounts are full. When I am busy or too tired, I can't help you. I want you to know there are no strings attached when I give. I am doing this because I love you or because I am following an intuitive urge. I have to say no sometimes. I have limits.

Make it Easier

Helping others is necessary for community. Allowing others to help us is also part of life. It teaches us to let go of control and gives us a sense of support. When helping or being helped, one must distinguish between the times helping is an act of love, service, and compassion and when it is an act of self-interest. When does helping others cripple the giver and the receiver? The ideas above will start you on the road to saying no when giving is no longer sacred. Once you discover the times helping others lifts both the giver and receiver, and act from those values, you make your life and the life of those around you easier and easier.

Blessing

May your life be blessed by the wisdom to enter the circle of giving from your heart, not from your sense of obligation. May you know how unlimited you are, yet also know when you have limits. May you bless yourself with as much inner giving as you give to others in the outer world. May you never give to get. May you never give to earn appreciation or approval. May you know that it is more blessed to give than receive, but also know that receiving can be a gift to another.  May your giving and not giving be guided and sourced in compassion, wisdom, insight, generosity, love, and kindness. And so it is.

Make it easy.

Anne

  Quotes

"Compassion erases judgment."
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

"Forgiveness releases you from the harm of self-righteousness, resentment, and jealousy."
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

"Go gently into every expression of life. Meet each moment, new and fresh, forsaking all prejudices, judgments, filters, beliefs, and forms."
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

"Discover what is now. Be still and let life reveal itself to you."
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

  Houston Theosophical Society

Anne Sermons Gillis currently serves as the president of the Houston Lodge of the Theosophical Society.

We encourage our members to live a life in service to humanity, in stillness through mediation, and in study of ancient wisdom.

"Recognition of the unique value of every living being expresses itself in reverence for life, compassion for all, sympathy with the need of all individuals to find truth for themselves, and respect for all religious traditions."
   --The Theosophical World View

Meetings are held on the first and third Saturdays at 10 AM Central Time in Houston, Texas.

For more information visit The Houston Lodge or visit our national organization at http://www.Theosophical.org.

  Anne's Books

Standing in The Dark

EZosophy

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

Now available on Kindle. Click for details.

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

Now available on Kindle.
Click for details.
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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

Now available on Kindle.
Click for details.

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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  Healthy Living

Try a Mushroom Sandwich

Want a change? Try a mushroom sandwich. I stovetop grilled my two large portabella mushrooms in an iron skillet. I topped the underside of the mushrooms with a store bought pesto while they cooked. I added a few onions on the side to cook. When everything was done, I put together a mushroom sandwich on Ezekiel bread, with grilled onions, sliced tomatoes, and sunflower sprouts. It was really good.

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We had two mushrooms left over, so tonight I’m cooking grilled mushrooms on rye, with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut. I limit my cheese intake, but I like to have some once in a while.

Click for larger image.

This meal was quick and easy to fix and, for me, a mushroom sandwich was something I’d had in restaurants, but never tried to cook at home.

Wish you could join me for dinner tonight. I smell those mushrooms cooking.

  Anne Talks

Click to watch Breathe: Surrender: Living in the Present. (14:27)

Click to listen to Kundan Chhabra Interviewing Anne Sermons Gillis. (1:07:02)

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to find out.

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Editor/Publisher: Charles David Heineke of TheDoorway.org.