Living in these pandemic times has given me great pause, and in that pause, I consider momentarily that which I miss the most.  I must confess that there is a myriad of staples absent from the life I currently live, and one that floods my memory today is the presence and the work accomplished by table bread.  I miss sitting around a table filled with friends, laughter, story, advice, prayer, and openness.  In my pre-pandemic life, I came to know table bread as the welcoming experience that drew us into the lived out loud moment.  No matter how long it took our meals to join us at the table, the bread not only sustained us, it brought us together through its very presence.  Although we were seated by a hostess and carried on with the wait staff, it was the bread that often whispered, “Sit down and stay awhile with me.” It was often the first course, though never really counted as such, designed to be broken, pulled apart, touched by human hands, buttered, dipped, shared, and consumed to temporarily satiate even the heartiest of appetites before the meal arrived. It was and still is for me the communal element, part earthy in origin, part blessing in spirit, and part sacred in purpose.  It is my prayer that the power of bread in your lives is taken, blessed, broken, and shared.  You, all of you, are the grace and bread that sustains my soul.  I love you!

 

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words. May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey. Selah!

Rev. Kathy

Here we are in the final days of a year that has sometimes felt like a decade in the making.  It is my hope and prayer that the final month of the year 2020 is filled with the realizations of happiness, merrymaking, joyousness, blessedness and so many others.  I know that these are just words; so our collective calling remains as to how we shift from just words to necessary actions that bring about love and a world that works for all. So beloved, no matter how you celebrate and observe the season of holy days, may they be for you all that you seek and so much more! ​Grateful As Ever, Rev. Kathy Beasley

Earlier this week, while out for my evening walk about the grounds, I happened upon some children running around playing. As I watched them from my swing (yes, my swing), I was reminded of two words that I decided to reclaim for myself and share this story of reclamation with you all.  

Sometimes, when I am working, one of the last things I want to hear is, “You’re it!”  Those two words have meant that I have inherited what feels like yet one more thing that I can’t get to today.  Living beneath the weight of this unexpectedness was my reality until a few hours ago.  Right now, the words “You’re it” have untold and certainly untapped power for each of us.  I could hear those words being spoken to my soul by Spirit, saying that which you seek, you’re it.  That which you ask for, you’re it.  That door at which you stand before and knock, you’re it.  Yup, there it is!  

Whatever we need, we are that for our very selves and the world around us at any given moment.  There is no delivery of grace, peace, joy, prosperity, hope, or abundance that is heading our way by accident; each one of us is already all of the things, feelings, perspectives, outcomes, and so much more, as they are made manifest in and as each of us. I believe that God withholds no good thing from us.  All the goodness, greatness, and courage that we need is right here within each of us.  In short, we are far from being and living in a vulnerable state of being; we are indeed powerful beyond our imagination.  So beloved, tag; you’re it! 

Know that you are in my heart and prayers as you wade out into what’s right for you.  Be blessed, and so it is, all because; You’re it!

Back to my regularly scheduled program of just being in the swing of this thing called life!

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words. May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey. Selah!

Always Keeping Real,

Rev. Kathy

One of the most difficult concepts to embrace in life and love is one that is constant; change.  Things are always changing and they seldom to never change back to the way that we remember; as we are always on a journey of growth and perpetual motion forward as we are called and prepared to be and to do that which is necessary in the present moment.  It is by Divine design that nothing stays the same and everything that we see, know, feel, engage, and understand is always changing; we are always changing. 

I am more aware today that change for any of us is an inside job as it finds its beginning within the very core and essence of who we are, along with every facet of nature we begin to create beautiful and outward reminders for the onlooker that the whole world is changing in concert with us.   Today, we turn our attention to nature as she is preparing the trees to release their leaves; the myriad of species of the air to take flight and migrate toward warmth, while others begin to prepare to turn inward for a time of great rest.  In my own life, I have traveled to parts of the country to witness the beauty of this change that is already in motion and signaled by the manifestation of beauty in the colors of the leaves.  How far are you willing to go, to experience this change in yourself and others?  Today, the earth speaks to us and heralds that change is not just seasonal or a point of observation; it is a constant call both to and from the depths of us to participate and be a part of the loving flow that creates change in our world.

According to the almanac, the calendar and the very soul of the earth today is the point where this journey of autumn begins.  In my heart, I know that life is indeed a continuum and the earth has always been on a trajectory toward and into this day of the autumnal equinox.  Yet, on this day it is said that the day and night shall be of equal lengths as the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator.  Today, I invite you to know and experience an equinox of the soul, where all that we have been prepared to release and all that we have been prepared to receive and become are the same and equal in span and value to our living and our loving. Be willing to see the movement of light across the equator of your life and the work that you do in the world.  Today, please join us as we celebrate the many names of the constant of the earth; change, growth, harvest, life, birth as the focus of this day is not on the difference between them but rather the sameness of them.  As we enter into this season, be willing to know that which is always changing within you, others, and our world; and you find occasion to celebrate the wisdom of change.  My prayer for all of us is that the giving away and receiving into our lives becomes as constant as the air we breathe and that today may we note the inward and loving change that is set forth from the soul of all that is.  I bid you a good journey as you have already been prepared to do, be, and bear witness to this work within and in the world.  Blessed be your every motion, thought, and prayer.

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words. May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey. Selah!

Roll Call!

I remember the crisp autumn mornings of elementary school, full of anticipation, angsts, new back to school sneakers, and a full complement of school supplies.  One of the anchors of the day for me was roll call; the teacher calling each name to see who was there and who was not.  I guess one could say that this was my first experience of call and response.  When we heard our name called, we were invited to acknowledge our presence by raising our hands and saying either; “Here” or “Present”.

It has been a while since I have experienced roll call as such, yet I believe that Spirit calls my name daily to show up in some way.  

“Be where you are; otherwise, you will miss your life” --Attributed to the Buddha

So, let us look at what exists beyond the verbal acknowledgment. Being present is an action that accompanies the response and causes us to pay attention to whatever is going on and not getting sidetracked or distracted.  In other words, this means living where life is happening.  I can hear the wheels turning as I type this, and I know that being present sounds easy, but sometimes it really is not.  I do not know about you, but the 24-hour news cycle has been alive and well in my head, long before we gave it a name, is sometimes louder than the present moment.  There is always something being broadcast in my thoughts or scrolling across the marquee of the mind that stands boldly between me and the now moment.  If not that, there is an internal team meeting that is usually ready to share commentary on anything and everything.  My internal broadcast has three settings; what was, what is, and what is not yet, and the analytics show that what was has the highest hit count.  This live stream is brought directly from the land of “Re”.  Dictionary.com suggests the following:

re- WORD ORIGIN. a prefix, occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, used with the meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition, or with the meaning “back” or “backward” to indicate withdrawal or backward motion.

Question: Why keep going back?

Here is the lesson: The roll call is not a rhetorical question.  It is a declaration of being and purpose!

My Truth:  When I am not present, I will not see what is going on right here, right now, and therefore miss out on much of the coolness of my very own existence.  I am still working with this idea of how life, existence, and being is relentlessly trying to tell me something. I believe that being present has the power to show all of us more of our true selves.  

Today, I invite you to a fresh experience of the first day of school roll call as a way of establishing who you are instead of wading through the pool of mistakes, missed opportunities, and misgivings of days gone by.  I guess this is what it means to let bygones be bygones.  Let’em go y’all!  Beloved, you have everything that you need right now to show up and show out in the best and most beautiful ways.  Be here!  Be present!  

Life, love, joy, and grace are happening all around you.  Remember the present moment is the only point in time where you can decide what to do or say.  Now is the moment that you have been waiting for and now has been waiting for you. What happens when your name is called?

#rollcall #called

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words. May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey. Selah!

“There is no place like home.” Dorothy

Year after year, I have had the chance to engage the idea of home for the holidays in signs and messages of the holiday season. Hear my heart when I say that there is nothing untoward about that idea as it is the foundation and support of my thoughts at this moment. Now, I know that you may think that perhaps I am a bit early and or late concerning what we know and celebrate as the holidays. Yet my soul gives me every indication that I am right where I should be and as I am to be in this moment and on this thought.

The definition of holiday is “A Holy day; a period of exemption or relief and a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I can certainly fit my life into and around this notion as I am becoming increasingly aware of the sacredness of time and movement throughout the day. The word holy always had such a linear scale for me as it seemed limited to the few days, people, spaces, and places, but today I experience this thought in a both-and sort of way as it is and so much more. What if we could suspend our disbelief and expand our belief just for a moment? What if every moment of every day would be held and celebrated for its goodness, and we could all experience a moment of relief from that which distracts over and over again? I believe that then and only then could we truly experience and know the true vastness of moments of celebration that emerge from our very being and pour them freely up and out of our own story and way of being into all of creation that surrounds and supports us.

Until today, this idea of home for the holidays was about a return to a place or the place of which I draw my origin. I have always had such a transient spirit as wherever I know myself to be, and I begin to view it as home, based on my connection to the very earth on which I stand. With that, I contend that wherever I am in the moment, holds the very quintessence of home as I find, know, and experience the Source of my being therein. For me, home is so much more than merely a place. It is rooted in a feeling of familiarity, remembrance, connection, and truth. Today it is this, and a state of being that comes to life in and for me. The whole festive occasion is not really about the physical transportation back, but the spiritual transformation into or towards that which is familiar to our soul. It is a return to the beginning of our beginning, the knowledge of knowledge, the love of loving, the faithing of faith, and the joyousness of joy. When we return home, it is not just to a place of our birth; it is to the way of being from which we were called into this life to be. It is not only limited to a few days each year when the cost of transportations skyrockets or we have extra time off work; the very essence of a holiday is found in the stillness of the early morning or the fleeting beauty of the evening and yes in the vibrant radiance of the midday; I believe that this marrow of truth is alive and well within each of us. So today, I invite you to return to the reality of your truth, the peace of your peace and the grace of your grace, and find yourself at home or connected to that which is at the core of your being. I know that when we do this individually and collectively, at that moment, there will be a grand celebration of the highest kind that can be found in our laughter, heard in our rhetoric, experienced as our love and known as our story of being. With that, I bid you a good journey and many happy returns to your very self as you return to the soul of your soul and find yourself home for the holidays in every moment of your lives. Happy, Merry, Joyous, Blessed, Bright, and Everything - Today and Everyday!

“If we gaze longingly at joy, it will make its home with us, and we shall enter its portals and be happy.”

Ernest Holmes

 

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words.  May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey.  Selah!

Oh, shift! Even the slightest movement is a sign of life. I believe that phenomenal and global changes in consciousness, economics, experiences, and the like are comprised of seemingly invisible everyday shifts. These daily shifts are found in the brief moments when something during the day does not go according to our plan, to-do list, nor pattern.

For years of my life, everything was all about me. What I wanted, thought, needed, had to get done, and I could go on. Then I heard my soul say, “Oh, shift!” Everything from the subtle to the overwhelming shifts in my life became a warning to me that something was happening on a much deeper level, and all I needed to do was be ready to adjust and live. I wish that I could tell you that I heeded that warning, but I didn’t. I should have kept listening because the shift that I experienced was my life becoming more about others than myself. All of a sudden, I was the last person on my mind. There was a shift in my soul’s paradigm, and the key that I discovered was that my life became MORE… the moment, I learned how to practice the Law of Circulation (giving and receiving). By giving and releasing, I created physical, emotional, financial, professional, personal, artistic, and prophetic room to receive. The reality was that everything in my life at that moment had to go for me to understand the power of manifestation and the blessing that letting go can bring. When things finally started to make sense to me, the list of evacuees included my then relationship, my home, my job, my dreams, so much of my stuff, and the person others thought I should be. There was no level of my existence untouched and unmoved by this shifting.

 Eventually, I woke up!  Waking up was not a one-time moment of discovery.  No, it was and still is an opportunity to become an observer of my own life.  As I sit with this memory today, the cry of my soul has become this gentle soundtrack for the slightest of movements in my life. Today, I know that the truth of our individual and communal value is not among what we have or struggle to hold onto; no, beloved; it is nurtured, blessed, and becomes more by an effortless act; the willingness of giving. The lesson that I learned is that giving is a much more gentle process than to be surprised by the grand exodus of all that I hold dear.  I know that I have the power to command the shifting ground beneath my feet to be still.  Instead, I have learned to find my balance and my way amid and throughout the constant shifts and always remain a joyful learner as my life is always a profound teacher.

“There is but one ultimate Power. This Power is to each one what each one is to it.”                       
Ernest Holmes

These are the lessons that I have lived out loud, thrown upon this page as Just Words.  May the essence of my life become light for your path and bread for your journey.  Selah!

-Rev. Kathy Beasley