The Anne Report, Lessons I Learn From My Dog Lucy, shows how we can gain valuable insights from our beloved pets. The Main article, Building Happy Relationships, provides some helpful relationship suggestions. The Healthy Living article, The Whether Report, provides helpful tips for forecasting a great day. The Anne Talk is Words Make A Difference, an interview of Anne by Keith Anthony Blanchard of Center of Light Radio.com. The Featured Product this month is Standing in the Dark. Click here to learn about Anne's newest book, Words Make a Difference.

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

Living EZosophy, March 28, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

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

Anne's Websites:

  The Anne Report

Lessons I Learn From My Dog Lucy

Dear ,

We are refreshed and renewed after spending a few days at the lake. We needed refreshment and renewal after facing a life-threatening challenge with our dog, Lucy. She ate a cooked shoulder bone our neighbors so graciously gifted her. I thought the bone was a wonderful idea, and Lucy loved it – so much that she ate the whole bone. Then came the bowel obstruction, the inability to eliminate, the doctor’s visit, the x-rays, the blood, and her no food for me policy. We were bereft, but, thanks to prayers and good medical care, she has made a full recovery. We are happy she came through the ordeal and we learned a thing or two about dogs and bones. She had eaten bones before, but cooked, flat bones are off limit. We eat mostly a plant based diet, and so we never have bones to give her. I had to let go of guilt; it was painful to watch her try to eliminate 30 times a day with no results and see her loss of energy. She remained dignified through the entire challenge, including the time the doctor stuck her hand up her butt time and time again to drag out the bones. She never even whimpered or complained. She was happy and wonderful through the entire process, except when she was in immediate distress.

Alan Cohen wrote a wonderful little book, Are You as Happy as Your Dog?, that addresses the joyful nature of dogs. Watching Lucy keeps me honest. It is possible to not hold grudges, to forget the past, and to enjoy what’s before us. Lucy teaches me these things every day.

That’s it for this week. Remember that while life is hard, it is not hard all the time. Most of the time it is EZ, and everything can be EZ or at least EZier.

Until next week, this is the Anne Report.

Anne

  Main Article

Building Happy Relationships

We are tribal people, pack animals, gatherers, and joiners. Solitary confinement, removing one from others, is a punishment or a tactic used to break people. Certain religions shun members who act outside approved behaviors as punishment for their supposed infractions. People are exiled from their country of origin. We don’t do well, as a species, when we are on our own for extended periods.

A therapist once spoke about helping people who had recently undergone an arduous boat journey to escape genocide. She expected to hear about the trauma of not knowing if they would survive, or the long, hot days at sea, but what she heard, on several occasions, surprised her. People wanted to talk about their relationships, not their endurance hardships. “He hardly even noticed me. He was looking at her.” “When we got to shore, she bolted, without a second glance at me.”

Relationships are important. While we don’t need to depend on any one person to meet our needs, especially when they don’t want to, we can expect that our need to feel a part of a pack, group, or family can be accomplished, and we can always have better one-on-one relationships. Once we pass the initial honeymoon phase of any relationship, when the fizzle wears off, we must take genuine heart action and become a giver of right actions.

We can’t wait for others to love us; we must become love in action, and in that giving we receive all the love we give. The St. Francis Prayer (I know. It’s widely accepted that St. Francis did not write the prayer, but it’s still a dynamite prayer!) says it clearly, “O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.”

Here are ways to build healthier and happier relationships with those who are close to you. Some of these are appropriate for friends and family and some of them are not. All of them are helpful in special love relationships.

• Smile at your mate/partner/spouse 5 times a day while looking them directly in the eye. This sends a signal to your loved ones that you are okay and that they don’t have to worry about you. Our loved ones often take responsibility for how we feel, and if they never see us happy, they feel guilty, mad, or afraid. Smiling is an amazing spiritual practice, so why not share that smile? This also conveys a unit of recognition; we all like to be noticed and to receive that confirmation of existence.
• When your loved one leaves for work or to run an errand, say goodbye. Acknowledge their departure. Give them a hug or a kiss goodbye. Greet them when they return with a hug, a kiss, or a greeting. “Hi. How did it go?” Consequently, tell them when you are leaving, announce when you get home, and touch in with them.
• Greet your mate when you wake up (if they are already awake). Give them a good morning hug, kiss, or a wave. If they wake up after you, greet them when you see them. “Good morning!” Be cheerful.
• Tell them you love them, one or more times a day.
• Give your significant other at least five hugs a day.
• Tell your significant other something you appreciate about them, every day.
• When your partner talks to you, pay attention. Don’t look at your cell phone and tell them you can hear what they are saying. Be present. Acknowledge what they’ve said so they know they have been heard. Nod your head occasionally, saying “I hear you” and say “yes” when appropriate. Ask questions to be sure you understand, or repeat back what they have said to show you heard them.
• Hug 5 to 10 minutes a day while lying down. Don’t force your mate to do this. Do it only if it appeals to your mate. Forcing compliance erodes trust and pleasure in our relationships.

Without taking special care of our relationships, they waver. It’s like trying to wash a handknitted wool sweater in the washer. Doing so will ruin the sweater. We must take our sweater to the dry cleaners or wash it by hand in cold water and dry it flat. Relationships require more attention and care than do our sweaters. Do we take as much care with our relationships as we would when we wash a garment or bake a cake? Relationships can be fragile, but when we take to time to nourish them, they gain strength and eventually become monuments of love and compassion. Better relationships make EZier lives, and, given the complication of contemporary living, EZier is more necessary than ever. Take it EZ, make it EZ, and have an EZ or at least EZier day.

Anne

  Quotes

Quotes

"Fighting for peace is like screwing for abstinence. It’s crazy!"
-- Unknown

"Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life's hard."
-- John Bytheway

"Joy is the most basic reality of the universe and of ourselves as parts of it: to seek this joy above all else is not a selfish quest. Living for sensual pleasure and ordinary happiness may indeed be selfish if pursued without thought for others, but the joy of the universe operates under very different laws. The more joy you give, the more sensitive you are to the blockage of joy in others and the more you are drawn through love to help them find joy. Ordinary happiness wants to get; joy wants to give."
-- Excerpted from Finding Deep Joy by Dr. Robert Ellwood

  Featured Product This Month

  Healthy Living

The Whether Report

One of the greatest contributions we can make to our health is living with a light attitude. Jokes, puns, wit are the foundations of humor, but even a well-placed smile, delivered to a stranger, lightens one’s day.

The following is my attempt to combine truth and humor to encourage us to walk on the light side of life. I advocate sincerity, but not seriousness. With that in mind, I present today’s Whether Report.

I predict a lovely day. Heart openings today with a 35% chance of compassion and generosity. There’s a 95% chance of smiles and a 5% chance of cloudy moods. Wins are from the creative imaginations and good attitudes coming from a mouthwardly direction. Whether you chose to believe this or not and whether you choose to make it true, is up to you. Go outside the comforts of the ego and make this day your lovely day.

As spiritual seekers and finders, we too often tend to make the unfolding peace of spirit a serious and heavy burden, rather than a pleasurable experience. It’s always time to put down the burden and take up the light of spirit. We are the Ambassadors of Light, not the Ambassadors of Burden. Whether we chose the burden or the light is up to us. Our elder brother, Jesus, the Christ, said it this way, “My burden is Easy; my yoke is light.” Let’s go for the light and embody that wonderful and masterful guarantee.

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

  Anne Talks

Words Make A Difference

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Saturday, April 8, 2017
2:00-4:00 PM
"The Golden Rules of Conscious Relationships" $15.00
Sunday, April 9, 2017
11:00AM-12:00PM
"Living an EZier, More Peaceful Life"
Unity of Brazosport
507 S Brooks St. (Hwy 36)
Brazoria, TX 77422

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
5:30-6:45 PM
Words Make a Difference
lecture and book signing
Unity Bookstore, 2929 Unity Drive
Houston, TX 77057
713-782-4050

Sunday, May 14, 2017 (Mother's Day)
10:30 AM Service
"Light Your Way Home"
Unity Circle of Light
Creekside Forest Elementary School
5949 Creekside Forest Dr.
The Woodlands, TX 77379

  Call or Email Anne Now to Schedule
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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.