A Note From Anne

Dear ,

I’m writing this introduction the day before Mother’s Day. Jim and I went for Mother’s Day flowers earlier, I’ve watched a show on climate change, and things are lazy. My daughter’s wedding anniversary is tomorrow. It can’t have been two years since the big wedding and now she’s twin-motized. She is on bed rest, and we look forward to two little souls coming our way soon. Did I mention that she is very, as in extremely, large? Since she’s in Charleston, I view her tummy in Facetime (it’s like Skype).

I also went to the grocery store this morning and had a stellar surprise. They had whole, fresh pomegranates. I bought three. I am possibly the world’s greatest pomegranate lover. I have never met another pomegranate devoté such as myself. I adore them, the taste, the peeling, and the eating ritual. I eat them one seed at a time. It’s a food meditation. Even though it’s practically against my religion to buy foods grown in another country, eat local you know, I make an exception when it comes to the pomegranates. They are my favorite food. Forget tiramisu; it’s poms for me.

Now for the good stuff. I’m sending you a magnificent surprise. Be on the lookout because it’s coming, maybe even today. I can’t tell you what it is, but you will know. You just turn on your imagination and I’ll supply the rest. It may be a great moment of gratitude, a realization, a call from an old friend, or a great opportunity. Just expect and accept your good and remember the truth: it’s all good stuff! Make it easy, take it easy, and have a wonderful day.

Anne

  Synchronicity

I was surprised when I heard my ex-husband Jerry’s voice on the phone. He had not called for years, not since our daughter was younger. (FYI he was living in Memphis and I lived in Spring, Texas.) He didn’t sound alarmed, so I relaxed. We exchanged greetings, then he said, “I met Barbara Taylor today.” I flipped, “You mean my childhood friend from Greenville.” “Yes,” he replied. Then he told me the story.

He and his wife attended a neighborhood meeting and afterward they went to a nearby restaurant. They recognized a couple who attended the same meeting then found themselves in line beside them. Knowing my ex, it wasn’t surprising that he invited them to join them. The couple accepted and they were seated. Jerry began the normal small talk and asked the woman where she was from. She told him Greenville, N.C. He was taken aback, since he spent four years there in college. They began exchanging Greenville stories. Then he told her he married a girl from Greenville. She asked who, and when he said “Anne Sermons,” she was visibly affected. “Anne was one of my best friends growing up. We lived beside each other. She was my friend, mentor, and teacher.” Wow, the odds of them now being neighbors.

Jerry wanted to include her husband, John, in the conversation (he asked to be polite; he felt guilty about hogging the conversation), so he inquired about his hometown. John replied, “I’m from Greenwood, MS.” This time Jerry’s wife reacted, “I married a man from Greenwood, MS.” “No way. What was his name?” “I married King Shurtleff.” Now it was John’s turn to be surprised. He incredulously replied, “He was one of my best friends. We even went to college together.”

Weird, huh? Two couples, whose ex-spouses knew each other as children, and grew up in the same hometown as best friends. Now the four of them were neighbors.

I contacted Barbara, and on my next visit to Memphis, we had a wonderful reunion. It had been 40 years since we’d seen each other.

Chance meetings happen all the time, but when they offer a meaningful coincidence, they are called synchronicity. Some people say “kwinky dink,” but regardless of what we call it, it was Carl Jung, the famous German psychologist, who brought this phenomenon to light.

Once, while telling a client how Jung used synchronicity in his practice, I remarked, “If I were telling you something and a tree fell behind my office, we might think that what I was saying was important for you to understand or pay attention to.” In that moment, we heard a noise, looked out the back window and saw a falling tree.”

My friend asked me to train her as a rebirther. I gave her an assignment and she completed it. She asked when we were to start the next lesson. I said the first thing that popped into my head. “When you find a feather.”I don’t know why she looked down, but something caught her eye. She was standing beside a feather. The odd part, we were inside, just outside my office door. It was time to move on with her lessons.

This list shows you what to look for in synchronicity:

• Coincidence, correspondence, connection, resemblance
• Trigger-points to a series of events or turning points
• The unexpected, unusual, uncanny, improbable
• What happens on the spur of the moment and just in time
• What is meaningful, is revelatory, and has become conscious to us
• The fluke or choice or happenstance that uncovers a whole new possibility in our psyche or a most useful path to our true bliss
• Serendipity, finding good fortune by accident, which is a way of referring to the playful dimension of synchronicity

I found this list in some old notes, but couldn’t find a credit. My apologies to the author, but it might be from Dave Richo’s book Unexpected Miracles: The Gift of Synchronicity and How to Open It. This book is refreshing and offers synchronicity seekers a path to creating and understanding synchronicity.

That list helps identify events in our lives as synchronicity. We can interpret synchronicity in the same way we interpret dreams. Synchronicity offers wisdom, meaning, guidance, direction, and confirmation that we have made a good choice.

Even though synchronicity is somewhat common place, I always feel awe and excitement when it happens. I want the wonders of the universe to inspire me, regardless of how often I see them. Like seeing a rainbow, synchronicity is a gift. If we open it with wonder and care, it can provide a special message. Maybe it shows that we are connected or on the right path. Perhaps it takes us down a new path or reveals a secret. It may help us connect or put us in the perfect place at the perfect time. Synchronicity is fun, didactic, and awesome.

Please send me an e-mail if you have a synchronicity story to tell. Have a great week, be on the lookout for synchronicity, and be sure to make your life easier and easier.

  Quotes

"People can make enormous sacrifices for those they love, but step on their corns and they go crazy."
  – Helena P. Blavatsky

"A lot of unhappiness is caused because people are at odds with their purpose."
  – Michael Gomes

"Stop looking in your mind for fulfillment. When your mind starts to build habitual agitation, treat agitation as a dharma (Truth) bell and relax. You will not find your Self in your mind. You will find your mind in your Self."
  – Gangaji

"Awakening is experienced as complicated only because you believe depth is revealed in complication. When you're ready to be simple, you will put your ideas aside. You will stop stewing in complication."
  – Gangaji

  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.

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to find out.

  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.

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

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  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

All times here are Central Time.

Tues. May 13, 2014, 7:00 PM
The Meeting and Purpose Group:
"Getting Clear With Money"
Donation
Unity Church
25250 Borough Park Dr.
The Woodlands, TX 77380
281-681-8883

Other Events for Your Consideration

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

May 17-18, 2014
Awaken Houston Retreat Flyer

June 5-8, 2014
Co-Creators Convergence Conference, Year 2

  Healthy Living

Storing Food

I feel irritated when I go in a grocery store and they have the onions or potatoes refrigerated. These staples break down quicker when refrigerated than when stored at room temperature. When I pay the high price of organic produce, I don’t want it breaking down faster than normal. Sometimes the grocery stores have people working in produce that don’t know what they are doing. I enlighten those working in produce and I may have saved a few potatoes from early rot. I’m not sure why root cellars, that have temps that range between 32 to 40 degrees, work to preserve root vegetables. Maybe it’s because of the high humidity in a root cellar.

I’ve found that if I put bananas in the fridge when they are ripe, they stay at that stage for a long time. The peeling will eventually turn black, but the inside is still edible. I’m not talking about weeks of life extension; I mean days.

Store garlic and onions together. Don’t store them with fruits and vegetables; this combination hastens deterioration. Do not refrigerate. They break down faster when cold.

Ripen avocados in your window sill and refrigerate when ripe. They will not ripen in the refrigerator.

Do not store bread in the refrigerator. It dries out. Store it room temperature or freeze it. I freeze my bread and take out two pieces when I need it. Sometimes it takes a knife to pry them loose, but the bread stays perfectly fresh when frozen.

Do not store fresh mushrooms in plastic. Store them in a brown paper bag and refrigerate.

Store acorn, spaghetti, and butternut squash in the pantry. They will last about a month.

Store fresh cut basil in a glass of filtered water or rain water. If you have a lot, freeze it for later use.

Store coffee in the pantry in an airtight container. The moisture in the refrigerator or freezer, can degrade the flavor.

Do not store melons in the refrigerator until after they’ve been cut.

Tomatoes get mealy when stored in the fridge. Use a lovely bowl and enjoy your tomato display as if they were flowers or a plant. I recently discovered the tomato secret. Why had no one told me?

We are fortunate to live in a place where food is readily available. Storing foods properly extends the food life and makes it tastier, and if you eat fresh foods, prepared with your loving hands, you will find that your life will get easier and easier.

  A Man I Never Met...

A Man I Never Met, Touched My Life Today, by Anita Jo Lenhart

Jo is one of my favorite peeps. She is a serial creator; she doesn’t sit at the right hand of God: she is actually that right hand. Jo sends original quotes and articles and I race to share them. Her vulnerability draws us near. With that drawing in, we discover a strength and wisdom that inspires us to realize that life’s magic resides in unexpected places. It is not always about looking up, it is about looking in.

Anne

Today at a meeting I heard a man had died. He was a friend to many of the people there. I had never known the man. But in some ways I did.  Like me, he’d been fighting for his life for many many years in a spiritual battle. He had helped others fight for theirs. But he lost the battle for his own last night.

In this room, as we talked – one after another, each one sharing the truth in the moment as best they could –the rest of us listening, I felt the Holy Spirit hovering above us and all around us. And when one man said, “I know I am in the right place when I can hear the word ‘f***’ and the word ‘God’ used in the same sentence. Church makes no sense to me. But this place makes sense to me.” I felt humbled.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

  Anne Talks

Click to watch Anne being interviewed by Noel Marshall and Bob Warner. (85:09).

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