A Word from Rev. Carole Nielsen, our Staff Minister...

Glass Houses

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood, and over breakfast one morning the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside on the clothes line. “That laundry doesn’t look very clean,” she says. “It’s obvious she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Maybe she needs a new laundry detergent.”

Her husband looks up, listens, but remains silent.

Every time the neighbor hangs her wash to dry, the young woman makes the same comments.

A few weeks go by and the woman is surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line, and she says to her husband: “Look, dear, she finally learned how to do laundry right. I wonder who taught her!”

This time her husband replied, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

Everything in life is a decision, a choice that we make either consciously or unconsciously. Gratefully for us in this wonderful teaching of ours, The Science of Mind, we are taught and reminded often to be conscious and thereby direct our lives toward the fullness and possibility that truly lie in store. All we need to do is open up and receive what Spirit gives in response to our choices, and if we don’t like what we see, well, “that was a result of yesterday’s choices! What am I choosing today?”

We are embarking on a fabulous journey here at the Westlake Center for Spiritual Living. The “facts” say “we are Minister-less” at the moment. The Truth is that we have let go of a chapter in our lives that has been fulfilled by the magnificently “Principled” (Never sacrifice Principle, not even for a special occasion!) Dr. Sue Rubin, my dear friend and Mentor, and the wisdom and depth of Dr. Jim Lockard. And in releasing each one of them to expand into their new experience, we have opened a door to our own, for when one door closes, another opens. The Universe abhors a vacuum. It must be filled. And it is being filled by the choices we make individually and collectively, for it is obvious to me that we “hunger and thirst” for a greater expression of Truth presented in a way that helps us to move off the platform on which we sit and propel us forward into a new Consciousness. Therefore let us “clean the windows” of our current Consciousness and recognize this opportunity for what it is….we have grown and are ready to grow even more, and that desire for growth is bringing to us a Pastor, a Leader who is Principled, Wise and Enlightened and speaks to us so that we may hear and leads us so that we may follow and even surpass the teacher.

My first Minister and Mentor in The Science of Mind (and Dr. Sue’s, too), the one and only Dr. Tom Johnson used to say “I am here to be your teacher until you no longer need me!” And that, my friends, is where we are right now. God is blessing us all! And So Beginneth the Lesson.

I embrace the Truth of my Being that I have come to a place in my Consciousness, and in my life on this plane of expression, where I am ready for the More! I have an open space in my heart and my soul that cries out for a greater wisdom, a greater opportunity to express that untapped possibility and potential that lies within me and is ready to move into the outer world of experience. I stand firm in my belief that I expect only that which is wholesome and fulfilling in my life, and I know my expectation is the invitation to make just “that” my reality. I give thanks for the seeds of choice I have planted, and know the fruit of that which Is planted is already manifested in all its magnificence. This is just the Beginning. And SO It Is!