A Note From Anne

Dear ,

Sunday afternoon I decided to listen to an audio book while drawing. I love to make little doodles and patterns. These drawings usually end up in the newsletter. I sat with a small paper square and a black ink pen and as I drew, I looked into the life of a fictional heroine. Intertwined with a story about a disintegrating marriage was the tale of a woman reconnecting to her passion and her passion was art.

I was doing art while listening to a woman’s journey into her creativity. That kind of experience is called synchronicity or meaningful coincidence. This week I teach a class on synchronicity at the local community college. I find that when I talk about synchronicity, it shows up everywhere. I feel more aware of life’s flow when synchronicity happens. Be on the lookout for synchronicity this week and if you have one, let me know. I’d like to hear your story.

People ask about my little grandbabies. They are doing so well. After facing so many life threatening situations, they are growing and blossoming. Reynolds and Thomas are still very small, yet they no doubt are little people… toes, fingers, wants, and desires. I don’t live in Charleston where they live, but I hang on every picture my daughter sends. Being a grandmother is like having a secret that’s with me all the time. My secret? "Somewhere, in what seems a world away, two little beings, hold my heart."

Anne's grandbaby twins

Anne

  Creating More Ease in Life

Life is malleable. It’s like play dough. Some people make monsters from their play dough while others create angels. I’d like to think I was always on the angel side of creation, but honestly, I’m all over the place. Who knows? Perhaps it’s desirable not to get caught in one mode of expression.

Lord Krishna (the imp)

In eastern philosophy Krishna represents a unique aspect of divinity. He is the essence of love and joy, but Krishna is also depicted as being a child – and that child is impish. It’s refreshing to think of an aspect of divinity as impish. Our idea of spirituality is often based on perfectionism, and even though we, in our true natures, are perfect, our personalities and behaviors were never meant to be perfect. Our need to be perfect and good all the time cripples us as much as our need to rebel and sabotage our lives. We don’t have to be good all the time in order to earn our right to exist.

Being authentic, not being a goody-goody, having fun, and not being so serious about the spiritual path, are the ingredients of a life well-lived. I tire quickly of sappy spiritual people. Actually I’m a little afraid of them because hidden under that positive veneer is a cauldron of seething rage, and I don’t want to be around when it blows. People often think that positive thinking is the only way to live, and while it is an integral part of living the good life, the philosophy was never meant for every life situation.

EZosophy is philosophy created to combat some of the terminal seriousness of life. Even though life is hard, it is not hard all the time. We each have the capacity to lighten up even during the toughest times.

Do you ever think about cleaning out your clothes closet? Do you sigh internally just at the thought? Discarding old clothing is not really hard. It is actually a privilege – to have more clothes than we can wear, to be able to buy a newer style, or to have frayed ones that we’ve loved and worn until they no longer serve us. The same goes for cleaning out the refrigerator. We have so much food, that some of it goes bad. That’s abundance and privilege. Is there a way to look at cleaning as a pleasure? The fact that we even have the leisure time to clean our closets or refrigerator is a sort of grace. Some people work three jobs and spend their entire day seeking food and water. I’m not comparing to make us feel guilty for what we have, but comparisons can shift us into a recognition of all we do have.

The idea that life is always hard gives us amnesia and causes us to live through that lie. Figuring out what is really hard and what is ego driven is an every moment task. We need not avoid genuine suffering, such as a great loss, but when suffering is ego driven, we must remember that ease lurks at every corner. If we never look at it, or for it, if we don’t embody ease, we remain slaves to our cultural heritage and that heritage sucks! Yes, it sucks when we overlook the deep essence of living and substitute it with the worn out ego driven values of martyrdom and sacrifice. While all the world goes crazy, it’s time for us to go sane. Let’s create a mental sane asylum and rest in that.

Build it and they will come. It’s time to build safe, sane, and easy realities because when we do the relentless grace of being enfolds us into the radical presence of love. Life is meant to be a treasure, but it’s up to us to be the treasurer. It’s time for a treasure hunt. Treasure the quirky, hilly terrain of life, and when you do, you will find that life can be EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

"One day the awareness of the all flooding joy of the Self, which is ever there with you as an undercurrent of your existence, becomes natural." – A. R. Natarajan

"Most people do not have conversations. They have parallel monologues." – Alan Cohen

"Live, act, desire, choose, and achieve in the world, but remember that who you are is far greater than anything you could get. Then the world will become the field upon which you discover that no matter what game you were playing, you have already won." – Alan Cohen

  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.

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

All times here are Central Time.

Wed. & Fri. Sept. 17 & 19, 2014
10:00 AM-Noon, “Synchronicity”
Lone Star College ALL Program
Montgomery Campus
3200 College Park Drive
Conroe, TX 77384-4500
936-273-7000

Wed. & Fri. Sept. 24 & 26, 2014
1:00-3:00 PM, “Alive, Awake, Aware”
Lone Star College ALL Program
Kingwood Campus
20000 Kingwood Drive
Kingwood, TX 77339-3801
281-312-1600

Wed. & Fri. Oct. 29 & 31, 2014
1:00-3:00 PM, “EZosophy”
Lone Star College ALL Program
Kingwood Campus
20000 Kingwood Drive
Kingwood, TX 77339-3801
281-312-1600

  Healthy Living

Glass Bottles and Cucumber Salad

I like to buy my cooking oil, and even my mayonnaise, in glass bottles. I may be too cautious, but I think the oil leaches out into the plastic. I don’t like the thought of eating plastic oil. I buy almond butter in glass jars, tahini in glass jars, and will often opt for a nonorganic oil in glass over an organic oil in a plastic jar. The plastic may contain BPA, phthalates, and other chemicals. You may want to think about this if it’s not on your radar. Research shows that 90% of Americans have BPA in their urine.

On an uplifting note, here’s one of my favorite salad recipes, Cucumber Salad. It’s so good that my husband and I call it “Salad Crack.” It is addictive.

Cucumber Salad Recipe

Mix two tablespoons oil, vinegar, and mayonnaise with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 1/8 to 1/4 cup of chopped yellow onions (not shallots, not white onions, sweet onions, or red onions), and one teaspoon of dried dill weed (not dill seed). Add two cups of sliced cucumbers or one of those long English cucumbers.

It tastes great if you can make it in advance, but it’s still great when you make and eat it immediately. For variety I sometimes add red bell pepper, tomatoes, and/or romaine lettuce.

Happy eating.

  Anne Talks

Yes or No Person? Short one minute video. Move pointer to the right to display the video player and press the Play button.

  Anne Art

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

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