Anne's Note today is Trash Day. The Main article, Secret Success, reminds us that sometimes we don't see our own success. The Healthy Living article, Christmas Goodies, provides recipes for Spiced Nuts and Chamomile Tea. Today's Anne Talk, It Came Upon My Mind to Clear, is one of Anne's repurposed Christmas songs. The Featured Product this month is Anne's new reprint of EZosophy: The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living. 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, December 13, 2016
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

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

Anne's Websites:

  A Note From Anne

Trash Day

Dear ,

On Saturday, Lucy (my dog) and I joined our local environmental organization in the quarterly scheduled trash pickup. We met in the park and were given assignments. Two women, Lucy, and I left on our trash journey. While I have picked up trash many times on my own, this was the first group pickup I’d participated in. I thought, "Three of us at once, there won't be enough trash." While there wasn't much big stuff, there was plenty of small litter pieces. As we walked, one person picked up the trash that another overlooked. It was surprising how much trash was unnoticed as the three of us, later four volunteers, walked the trails. As I watched the seasoned women find things I'd missed, I developed a keener eye for trash and my surroundings. (We picked up cigarette butts and chewing gum. If you smoke or chew, please don't throw your refuse out the car window. Make the volunteers' jobs easier.)

Some of the trash picked up

The Pickers: Kathy, Judy, and Anne

There is even a trash app for our town. If you find a tire or trash too big to carry out, you can take a picture of the trash and the phone GPS sends the exact trash location, along with the picture, to the appropriate department in The Woodlands. Then they pick it up. Yikes, how neat is that?

I prefer not having trash to pick up, but the process of picking it up and joining with others was satisfying. It was an exhilarating experience. The 40-degree weather added a unique dimension to the quest; there is something invigorating about the weather finally getting cold. It was fun to be around people who shared similar values, people who were willing to share a Saturday morning to better the community.

The trash pickup reminds me of the mind and our awareness. How much mental trash do we overlook? What decaying habits and molding thoughts do we need to throw out? More importantly, do we overlook our wisdom, creativity, and resources? We tend to think we've been there, done that, and with that attitude we miss the freshness of life. When we are bored or off kilter, it's a signal to look deeper, because whenever we feel we are missing something, it's because we've either looked past something or overlooked it all together. We want more and there's always more; we just have to look in the right places. The secret to life is that what we desire, the desire of the heart, is always available, whether we are picking up trash, standing in line at a store, meditating, or making a million-dollar sale. Our assignment is to tune into the expansive quality of Nowness and to receive its presents. It's great homework and, at Christmas time, we all love presents. Let's clear our metal trash, take note of the treasure available at all times, and receive the kingdom at hand. And remember that everything can be EZ or at least  EZier.

Happy holy days,

Anne

  Main Article

Secret Success

I used to wonder how my friend could afford to travel. She was the minister of a small congregation, as was I, but somehow, she managed to travel extensively. "I wish I could do that," I often thought. One day I was astonished, yet amused, when she asked, "How do you manage to travel so much?" I laughed and told her I wanted to know the same thing about her. We knew the answer – we accomplished the impossible through burning desire, intention, and a wing and a prayer. It was easy to see her success, but not so easy for me to see my accomplishments. My success was a secret, but only to me.

Years ago, I admired a woman and wanted her to be more than a casual acquaintance. She had an acting background and lived in an upscale section of town. She was beautiful, prosperous, creative, and gentle. She was the epitome of grace and style. I was in awe of her. I reached out on more than one occasion, but we never connected. Years later, we were in a workshop that required intimate sharing. I told her how I admired her and had reached out to her in the past. Immediately she replied, "I'm sure I was too intimidated. You were such a powerful woman, so together. I had very low self-esteem then."

Both stories represent or illustrate a lack consciousness - the inability to see and appreciate the here-and-now. My life was a secret success, maybe not to most people, but it was a secret to me.

When I was in my 20's and 30's, I was morose about climate change. I grieved as I walked in my neighborhood and witnessed species habitat destruction, ponds plowed under to make way for homes, while other places were flooded to make way for groundwater holding tanks (lakes are often created to be a city's or county's water supply). The world was upside down. The environment was being destroyed and, regardless of what I did, things were getting worse. I couldn't do enough to stop the plundering of Mother Earth. Fortuitously, I had a dark night of the soul moment. I hit a wall, but it was a climbing wall and I climbed over it. I realized that even though species were going extinct and that our water and air quality were threatened, I was okay. I had food, clean water, safe shelter, and a career I loved. My good life was hidden beneath my distress. Again, I lived with a secret success: I had what I wanted in life, but my fretting kept my heart covered with artificial trouble – trouble that had not arrived in my life. I emerged knowing what I had to do: I needed to honor what was, rather than stay focused on the possibility of the destruction of my way of life. It was a colossal waste not to enjoy and appreciate what I had now. I could recycle, use less water, take my bags to the grocery store, and ride my bicycle, but I didn't need to live in fear or depression over some possible catastrophe in the future.

Do you suffer from secret success? Look at a present life scenario. Are you upset about the elections? If so, the new president hasn't taken office. There have been no policy changes. Today, nothing is different. Are you wasting your grace on the future?

Life deserves an appreciation that extends to every area of our existence. When we are riveted on an apocalyptic scenario, we ruin today. This is not a positive thinking or a Pollyanna optimistic way to look at life; it's just a practical way not to drive ourselves crazy. But if we add a little Pollyanna on top, we can be sane and happy.

It's easy to look at someone's life and see how much better it is than ours or to look at the future and worry about finances, political drama, climate change, and health issues, but it's also blasphemous. We live in sacred surroundings, and to ignore this is to squander the great gift of life. Apprehension and supposition keep our success a secret, and what good is secret success? Let's use each day as a passageway to the greatness of our individual lives and be open to the light of appreciation and awareness, because when we do, everything is EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

"I learned to cross the threshold of my studio with reverence, as though I were entering a shrine set apart for me to become co-creator with the Universal Thinker of all things.

"I do not say as I enter my studio, 'I am a sculptor; I ought to be able to do that thing.' Instead of that I say, 'I am an interpreter who can think that thing within me which is worthy of being done.' When I get that feeling, that rhythm, that meter, that measure which comes to me as an inspiration, then I know that I can produce it, and nobody under Heaven can tell me that I cannot produce it."
-- Walter Russell

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
-- Melody Beattie

"Take care of yourself. Illusions are very clever."
-- Unknown

  Featured Product This Month

At last, the reprint of EZosophy: The art of EZ or at Least EZier Living, is out. If you've been wanting an EZier life, this book provides a clear path toward EZ.

EZosophy:The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living is a simple philosophy that radically changes lives. It is a book for the spiritually-based reader who no longer values the ego driven struggle of contemporary life.

EZosophy encourages you to:

• Give up Hard Attacks. Hardaholic no more.
• Drop the drama.
• Make your life EZier. Ease is not indolence. Rather, ease is the art of accomplishment without struggle.
• Identify ego driven suffering (EDS).

  Healthy Living

Christmas Goodies

Everyone loves to receive homemade goodies for Christmas. These nuts are so luscious, you'll love them and they make great Christmas gifts. And if you like that holiday smell wafting throughout the house, this will do it, and the great thing is that they are so easy to make you'll feel like you’ve done practically nothing.

Spiced Nuts

• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice a mixture of cinnamon, clothes, ginger, and cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar or maple syrup
• Three cups of unsalted nuts such as pecans cashews walnuts almonds, etc.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix ingredients. Place the nuts in a single layer on top of parchment paper and a large baking pan. Bake for 1 hour or until the coating is crunchy. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. Keeps in a sealed container for two weeks.

Chamomile Tea

While you’re munching on those yummy nuts, try a sip of chamomile tea. While most people know that chamomile tea helps us sleep, there are other benefits too. Chamomile tea:

• Helps us focus during the day.
• Fights colds. It kills bacteria.
• Reverses abnormal cell growth (aka cancer).
• Promotes healthy skin.
• Aids digestion, calms stomach upset, and soothes irritable bowel syndrome.
• Heals wounds. Put that tea bag on your wounds. It has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant effects.

Bet you didn't know all that. Don't drink chamomile tea if you are pregnant or nursing. It's thought that the anti-inflammatory effects might not go well with pregnancy, just like aspirin is not recommended during pregnancy. But if you are my age, that's of no concern, and I can have all I want, when I want it.

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

Anne

  Anne Talks

It Came Upon My Mind to Clear

Today's Anne Talk, It Came Upon My Mind to Clear, is one of Anne's repurposed Christmas songs. Time: 4:08.

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Sunday, December 18, 2016
10 AM EST Worship Service
"EZosophy: The Basic Philosophy"
Mt. Pleasant Unity
3100 Tradition Circle, 2nd floor
Sign in at 1st floor desk.
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Call for directions. It's a little tricky.
Call 843.814.1322. Ask for Kimberly.

Pot Luck after the morning message. EZosophy Workshop after the pot luck lunch, starting around 12:30 PM to 1 PM, as it flows time-wise. The two hour workshop is offered asking for conscious giving of $15 to $35.00. Please do not let finances be the reason you don't come; any donation is deeply appreciated. Workshop includes action plans and support for turning away from traditional forms of suffering and emerging into greater states of EZ (ease).

  Call or Email Anne Now to Schedule
  Her for Your Meeting.

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.