A story that touched me this week told of an Oklahoma mother whose son came out as gay and her church was not an affirming place. She initially would not accept her son but has come full circle. She had to question authority, her heart and her faith. She discovered a church that affirms and celebrates her love for her son and the community. She started Free Mom Hugs to accept and welcome any individual into an embrace.

Every day is, of course, an opportunity to make a difference. Each moment we choose whether to come from Christ consciousness or from an egoic mindset. Each time we share love, we are impacting our world. In Unity, we know that our thoughts shape our vibrations and our actions.

Play is the mode through which children learn. When we play, we enter a state of being light, creative, and in touch with our heart. The joy we experience there starts flowing and raises our vibration. We are made in the image and likeness of the One that is full of creativity and fun. God's creation itself reveals a sense of playful extravagance. We see the wide variety and artistic nature of the natural world. Just looking at penguins, dolphins or puppies playing fills me with glee!

I’m up for an awakening in every heart and mind to move all of humanity to an awareness that we are one. Spirit has some work to do! I long to see the news showing us living as brothers and sisters. We are ever evolving, and we can take a lesson from nature that I joyfully discovered last week.

Claudia’s lovely talk on Sunday had me thinking about our impact on others and their impact on us. When we start our day off in prayer, what we are doing is remembering the truth of who we are and choosing to be a force of love as we move through our day. It is a consent to love and a consent to receive love since love is all inextricably tied together.

Welcome to September! There is freshness in the air with the new school year, Spirit Group offerings and apple harvest time! We are celebrating Growing Together Through Every Season at UCBA this month. I am claiming that we will each receive spiritual food for our journey together with this series.

Have you ever used the self-checkout at the grocery store, and you are scanning your items, putting them in bags, and happily not needing the attendant when all of sudden for no apparent reason, the scanner stops working and announces, “Help is on the way!” and the light starts flashing. The attendant comes to get you going again. I usually laugh and say, ‘I didn’t even know I needed help!’

I was sent this beautiful piece written by Debra Engle and I can’t keep it to myself.  May you be blessed by this simple prayer and reflection.

Claudia sang her original song “Beautiful” on Sunday, which includes these lyrics: