Anne's Note today is Take Life EZier. The Main article, Claim Peace Now, reminds us that we can always choose peace, regardless of what's going on around us. The Healthy Living article, Food Makes a Difference: Time to Detox, provides an easy liquid detox recipe. Today's Anne Talk is The Path to Conscious Awakening: Five Stages of Evolution for the Spiritual Seeker. The Featured Product this month highlights Anne's Four Books. Click here to learn about Anne's newest book.

The EZ Mantra: "Everything can be EZ or at least EZier." – Anne Sermons Gillis

Living EZosophy, January 3, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 281-419-1775
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  A Note From Anne

Take Life EZier

Dear ,

Excuse me. What happened? I accidentally cancelled my Aweber newsletter account, so when I reinstated it, my right-hand man, Charles Heineke, sent the newsletter out, not realizing that when I reinstated it, the auto function would send out the newsletter too. Everyone received two EZ Secret newsletters. My husband thinks everyone should be able to deal with that slip up. After all, aren't we EZosophists?

Life doesn't train itself to all our expectations. There are blips and bloopers on the trail, and if we don't learn to handle them with grace, we reign terror in the lives of those around us. We tend to take our upsets out on our friends and loved ones.

How addicted are we to staying upset? As Bob Mandel says, "Every upset, is a setup." We set up our minds to fight an imagined enemy – the person standing close, who has nothing to do with anything! As the New Year starts, let's examine our bad moods, deflated self-esteem, and roaring intenseness, and let go. Prayerfully affirm: I am open to my good. I take full responsibility for this moment and retract all blame and irritation. I could see peace instead of this. (Words in italics are from Lesson 34 in A Course in Miracles)

Anne

  Main Article

Claim Peace Now

This morning as I awakened, I experienced a heaviness. Yesterday my husband made a casual remark about the world situation. Examining my heart, I recognized the familiar heaviness: it was grief. I carried a sadness for the world and the events that govern our daily lives. The situation seemed irreconcilable, and as I pondered the facts, I slipped into a deeper state of mourning. How could this be? Where was the sweetness I knew to be true? I knew positive thinking and optimism could not save me. There were no thoughts that could sweeten my perception. Then I remembered. There is no salvation in the world. There is no event, good or bad, that could restore my peace. I was using my egoic mind exclusively to interpret what I saw. I was not sourcing my vision from the ground of being. Even if there is never reconciliation of world events, life itself, is still okay. Life is a living presence, not a series of events.

I pondered my recent 2,500-mile car trip. While the expansive views of rivers, streams, creeks, and lakes, and a panorama of fields, hills, and forests, were astounding, the large number of dead animals along the roadside was shocking. Dogs, cats, deer, raccoons, possums, and those were just the ones I could see. Thirty years ago I participated in a 250-mile walk for racial healing, and as I walked those miles, I saw the dead animals one cannot see when traveling by car. There were snakes, lizards, bugs, and frogs. There was not one foot of that ground that had not been turned into the final resting place of one of our many creatures.

It seems tragic. We are in the middle of an unparalleled human-caused extinction of animals. All the large cats of the world are on the endangered species list. Commercial farming of animals is horrendous. The food most people eat is splattered with untold tears and suffering. When we encounter such suffering, such as the pain, suffering, and annihilation of our animals, one asks, "Can my broken heart be mended? This is the real world and I can't deny my pain." Unfortunately, we all encounter loss, pain, and suffering over the events in the world. Denying that we are affected by the horrors of the world is useless. We can't fool our hearts, but unless we feed our hearts, we don't have the fuel we need to live useful, compassionate, and loving lives despite what goes on in the world. We can't overlook our pain and the pain of others, but we cannot use it as the source of our living. It is only the joy of our living that leads us through the paralyzing events of life. There will always be world events rife with corruption, prejudice, and hate. Animals will die, car wrecks will continue, droughts and floods will plague us, but permanently affixing our minds to these events cripples our lives. Whether we can see it or not, there is something more than events, that's always present.

(Back to the bed.) As I lay in bed, I watched with deep awareness as my mind poised itself and surrendered in deep reverence. My awareness switched to love's presence. My heart lightened; my body relaxed. My breath was fuller and all grief took flight. I was home, in the sweetness of life. The Supreme Okayness returned. I remembered who I was, and even though the tragic situations of life remained the same, life was beautiful again. The beauty was always present; I had lost my focus. Alas, it returned. The elixir of love penetrated everything.

I blessed all the situations that cripple my perception and flung open the doors of living. I was free again to be who I was. I was in the world, but no longer a victim of the world I saw. And in just a few moments, I experienced the journey of the spiritual seeker. I went from the dark night, to the sunlight. A Course in Miracles states, "Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home."

The ego mind denies the immediacy of the Supreme Okayness. It sends us down a path of seeking that renders us helpless and hopeless. Love, however, stops the mind and its garishness. Love ignites the soul. Focusing on love creates a transformative quality that lifts us above the battleground of life.

Go for the love. Affirm frequently: "The transforming power of love permeates my thoughts and emotions and I am now free to live in perfect peace and harmony. I rest in love." Use this transformative prayer to restore your mind and heart and experience the radical change it brings. We can live using our small, limited abilities or we can immediately open to the unlimited peace and love that awaits us. Why wait for heaven? The waiting only appears as a delaying maneuver of the egoic mind. The waiting period is over. Our ship has come in. Our only job is the realization and recognition of our awaiting good. Now is the time, the only time, to make our lives EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Deathbed Song

If I had the chance to live life over,
I would go more slowly - that's for sure.
I wouldn't put up such a fight
to have my way or prove I'm right
or overlay the world with my agenda.

I would open each day like a present,
tender toward whatever came my way -
every texture - joy or pain -
searing sun or healing rain,
for I have seen the masks of my Beloved.

I would not be so restless,
so eager to mess with
the nectar of what is
that I over-think the kiss
or turn my mouth away.

I would not take a single breath for granted.
And I would spend much more time on my knees.
For once you've strewn the ashes of
the bodies of the ones you love,
you learn something about what really matters.

And I know that love is worth the wounding
And that this dance is too brief to sit through.
So even though my heart would break,
what a deep, exquisite ache.
I would always be a fool for love.

Kirtana Lyrics of Deathbed Song

  Featured Product This Month

Anne's Four Books

Words Make A Difference

Standing in the Dark

EZosophy: The Art and Wisdom of
Easy or At Least Easier Living

Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic

  Healthy Living

Food Makes a Difference: Time to Detox

Most of the time I am a clean eater. A clean eater eats good, wholesome, unprocessed foods, skips sugars, and noshes (snacks on) organic, green, and raw. The word most is an interesting word. It provides a space for all kinds of things to creep in, and in this case it's food that creeps in. Think Trader Joe's frozen cherry chocolate delight, dark chocolate bark, peppermint ice cream pie, and Whole Foods' vegan chocolate chip cookies and zucchini bread. Costco, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods can provide enough non-nourishing, but divinely delicious, food to turn the mundane into the miraculous … at least that's what my taste buds tell me.

I go easy on myself because the word most is a two-way street. While it allows some delectable junk foods in, it also brings in wonderful nourishing foods as well. The telling factor is my health. How much junk is too much junk? Recently I had my teeth cleaned. My dentist remarked as he cleaned and flossed my teeth, "Your gums don't bleed. Most people's gums bleed." It was true. My gums were healthy and tough. The surprising part of the story was that after less than two weeks of having the questionable foods, my gums were bleeding. While people go on a New Year's diet to lose weight, I go back on my regular diet, to maintain my health.

However, I also plan to go on a short liver detox in addition to returning to my healthier gum supporting diet. Here's a concoction that flushes out the liver and returns it to its normal functioning. I picked up the following detox from a link on Pinterest. Yes, I am in love with, enamored with, Pinterest.

You will note that the recipe includes a lot of lemons. Lemons metabolize as alkaline, not as acidic. You may want to rinse your mouth out with plain water after you drink or eat lemons, but do not bush your teeth for 30 minutes after you have lemons (or any citrus fruits or sugar). It gives the teeth time to rebuild.

Ingredients

• 6 Cups of water
• 3 Lemons
• 1 Cup chopped parsley
• 5 Celery stalks

Preparation

Peel and de-seed lemons. Blend the solid ingredients. (Include the lemon fiber.) Add the water and blend the combination again. I suggest making each batch fresh. Just cut the recipe in thirds.

Directions to Use

Drink 2 glasses, 3 times a day, for 3 days, for best results. During this period, eat light and healthy meals, avoid spicy food, and drink plenty of water. The more raw food one eats, the better.

Happy New Year. Today is always the right day to think healthy thoughts and to give our bodies the care and love they need to thrive.

If you have any healthy living tips for the newsletter, send them to me at anne@annegillis.com.

Anne

  Anne Talks

The Path to Conscious Awakening:
Five Stages of Evolution for the Spiritual Seeker

Today's Anne Talk is The Path to Conscious Awakening: Five Stages of Evolution for the Spiritual Seeker. It's another interview of Anne by Keith Anthony Blanchard of Center of Light Radio.com. Time: 57:36.

Here are the Five Stages of Evolution for the Spiritual Seeker which Anne discusses in the video:

• The Call
• The Journey
• Self-Determination
• Exploration
• Awakening

  Anne Art

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