A Note From Anne

Dear ,

This is the Earth Day edition of the EZ Secret newsletter. I will not green-motize (think hypnotize) you in each issue, but today I have license; after all, it’s Earth Day. It’s been 29 years since the first Earth Day Celebration, held on April 22, 1970. It’s a special day to draw our attention to what we can personally do to conserve our planet's resources and keep it healthy. Clean air, clear water, rolling, tree-filled mountains and hills – it’s the day to hold a bold vision for Mother Earth. See animals whose habitats are safe and fish swimming in clean water. See wild grapes growing, fields full of flowers, and the earth and its inhabitants thriving. See the earth as a place where humans easily live along side with animals, insects, birds, aquatic life, and reptiles. Focus on the beauty, majesty, and splendor of our global home.

It’s important to know the facts about what is called the sixth great extinction,* but it is equally important to hold a strong image of a healthy planet. When we only focus on the problems, we lose energy, and if we don’t think we can make any difference, we often quit trying.

Kudos to Showtime for the new series, “Years of Living Dangerously.” Harrison Ford and Don Cheadle examine the way climate change personally affects people. The first episode includes an interview of a Christian, a world renowned climate scientist who lives among top rate climate deniers in Texas. Her first convert, a Baptist minister, who just happens to be her husband. Again, it’s tough to watch, but if you do, I’ll bet you make sure you don’t eat palm oil if you can help it. You can watch the first episode at YearsofLivingDangerously.com.

Celebrate Mother Earth today and keep her in mind throughout the day; when you do, you can count on your life being easier and easier.

Anne

*Sixth Great Extinction (This is pretty rough, but if you want to know about the species extinctions on the planet, Mysterium.com offers a lot of links to articles.

  In Celebration of Earth Day

Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day on April 22, 1970 to salute our earth and bring to the forefront the sustainability problems we face on our planet. Interest in Earth Day ebbs and flows, but through the years it is evident that our earth suffers as a result of human action.

In 1992 I attended the Global Forum, which was a parallel event to the United Nations Conference on the Environment (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro. As a result of this event and other preparatory events, I became friends with Dr. Gary Herbertson, the president of Earth Day International. Gary was aware of my involvement in 12 step programs and challenged me to address the recovery of the planet. I gathered the help of a small group that included Beth Ingber Green and Dr. Terry Davis, Gary, and me. After several months of conference calls and refining, we came up with the following program. – Anne Sermons Gillis

Partners For Planetary Recovery

Partners for Planetary Recovery (PPR) is an affiliation of individuals and groups who align with the Twelve Steps for Planetary Recovery. If you are committed to practicing this program to the best of your ability, you may consider yourself a partner.

PPR has no leaders, only service committees whose purpose is to help disseminate this program. While individual partners may have opinions on how to implement these steps, PPR takes no positions and engages in no controversy. Our sole purpose is to support ourselves and each other in changing attitudes, so that we may unleash the great potential of our entire planet.

We feel our partnership across the apparent divisions of sex, race, class, national boundary, religion, and species, and we welcome our emerging unity. Yes!

The Twelve Steps for Planetary Recovery

In the 1930's, a handful of people confronted the life-threatening condition of alcoholism and launched a program of recovery called the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This program is so effective it has inspired many other twelve-step programs that have touched the lives of millions of people around the world.

Now we are facing an even more life-threatening condition: the destruction of the environmental life-support systems of our planet. Like alcoholism, this destructiveness is based on addictive attitudes, lifestyles, and behaviors; and as millions of recovering addicts have shown, these self-defeating patterns can be changed.

Twelve Steps for Planetary Recovery is designed to address our personal, local, and global condition. Practicing these steps will free us individually and collectively to discover solutions to our environmental  crises and the interrelated emotional, economic, spiritual, and social problems that confront us. One day and one step at a time, they can become a guide for our individual and collective lives.

Here are The Twelve Steps for Planetary Recovery

1. We, humanity, admitted that we were destroying the planet and that our need to dominate, consume, and control had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that we, the earth, and the universe are one, and that our tendency to dominate could be balanced by our desire for unity.
3. Made a decision to call on a power greater than ourselves to bring us into balance.
4. Made a fearless and thorough moral inventory of our beliefs, attitudes, and practices, and evaluated their impact on us and the rest of the planet.
5. Admitted to ourselves, a higher power as we understood it, and each other the exact nature of our wrongs; released shame, so that we could move forward with compassion for ourselves and others.
6. Became willing to make social, attitudinal, and economic changes in order to be in balance with our planet and in harmony with ourselves.
7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to help us change our technologies, social relations, and personal and collective lives so that we could promote life enhancement and sustainability for ourselves and other species.
8. Made a list of all the ecological and social damage we had caused and became willing to reverse it.
9. Cleaned up our rivers, oceans, landfills, and air, as we cleaned up our thoughts, emotions, actions, and social relations.
10. Continued to monitor how our attitudes and economic and social behavior impact the web of life, and when we were wrong, promptly called ourselves to awareness.
11. Sought through observation, experimentation, cooperation, and meditation to expand our conscious contact with ourselves, the earth, and the universe, so that we could continually support our collective well-being, evolution, and sacred rhythms.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of  these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to bring balance into every relationship -- with ourselves, each other, our planet, and the universe of which we are a part.

These steps may seem overwhelming. In fact, we don't expect to practice them perfectly. Instead, we plan to use them for study and discussion, as reference points to evaluate where we are.

We need to be honest about our situation and our capacities. We need to face ourselves and each other squarely and lovingly. And we need to do so now.

Nothing less has worked or is working. Nothing more is required. Let us trust in the consciousness of humanity, the earth, and the universe, and let us have faith that our collective vision of a thriving planet can become manifest on this earth. Yes!

In order to be able to rewrite the 12 steps of A. A, I had to say that anytime I published this, it would also include the original 12 steps. I have linked to them here rather than putting them at the bottom of this article. Here’s a link to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The twelve steps are used with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps does not mean that A. A. is in any way affiliated with this program. A. A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism. Use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A. A., but which address other problems, does not imply otherwise.

Distributed by Partners for Planetary Recovery
Contact: Anne Sermons Gillis, 281.419.1775 or anne@annegillis.com

Anne

  Quotes

"There is a road, steep and thorny, beset with perils of every kind, but yet a road, and it leads to the very heart of the universe. I can tell you how to find those who will show you the secret gateway that opens inward only and closes fast behind the neophyte for evermore. There is no danger that dauntless courage cannot conquer. There is no trial that spotless purity cannot pass through. There is no difficulty that strong intellect cannot surmount. For those who win onward, there is a rule, a reward past all telling, the power to bless and save humanity. For those who fail, there are other lives in which success may come."
  – Madame H. P. Blavatsky

Earth Day Affirmations
I make a powerful and positive impact on the world around me.
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

I am earth's care taker and I handle her with care.
  – Anne Sermons Gillis

  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.
0

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.

  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.

---

  Anne's Schedule

All times below are Central Time.
Sun., April 27, 2014, 1:00 PM
"Health and Wellness" group
Northwoods Unitarian
Universalist Church
1370 North Millbend Road
The Woodlands, TX 77380
281-298-2780

Thu., May 1, 2014, 7:00 PM
"Co-Creators Convergence” Telecall
5 PM PT/8 PM ET.
Dial-in Number: 559-726-1300
Access Code: 158352#
Playback Number: 559-726-1399
Access Code: 158352#

Other Events for Your Consideration

Here are two upcoming spiritual events that may be of interest to you.

Awaken Houston Retreat Flyer

Co-Creators Convergence Conference, Year 2

  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.

  Healthy Living

How to Make a T-Shirt Grocery Bag

I always have t-shirts that I no longer wear and a few I’ll never wear. Did you know a t-shirt can be repurposed into a shopping bag? It’s vogue these days to take your shopping bag to the grocery.

T-shirt Grocery Bag

To repurpose a t-shirt, Just cut a larger hole in the neck, cut off the sleeves, and sew the bottom together. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can use a cable tie or a shoe string. Thread the cable or shoe string through the hem of the t-shirt and tie the string or pull the cable tie tight and cut off the end. This makes your bottom. If you have a machine and want more details, watch the video How To Make a T-shirt Grocery Bag.

Cable Ties

Plastic bags are a menace to our earth, to our animals, and to our oceans. It’s in everyone’s interest to carry our bags to the grocery store. I carry small bags in my purse, so if I’m in a store and need a bag, it’s readily available. If I forget to bring a bag in the store, I have the checker put the items in the cart and bag them in the car or when I get home. As I walk out the door, I carry my receipt conspicuously in my hand, so as not to appear to be the granny bandit.

  Anne Talks

Communicating Love talk by Anne Sermons Gillis (23:59).

Click for larger image

If someone forwarded this email to you, you can click this link to have a copy delivered every Tuesday morning to your own email inbox.

If you're currently subscribed and no longer wish to receive this newsletter, click this link to UNsubscribe.

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

Share Anne by sharing this issue.