This morning, I did what I always do on Thursdays when I am in town. I went to my weekly 7:30 a.m. MasterMind meeting at La Tapatia near the church. As I was driving there, I was thinking about today’s blog article. Usually by the time I sit down to write the weekly blog, the idea for it has been marinating for a couple of days. However, this morning, I had nothing. Nada. Zip. So, when it came time for me to make my request for support from my partners, I confessed my temporary lack of an idea and asked for inspiration from the MasterMind.
As my partners, in turn, affirmed their support and offered their inspirations, an idea began coming into focus. The idea centered around the MasterMinding process itself, and the joy I feel for the opportunity to experience it weekly with three of the wisest, most compassionate men I have ever known. I truly am blessed for their presence in my life and cannot imagine what the quality of my life would be had I not been a member of this group for the last nine-plus years of my life. By the time our meeting concluded, I had my idea in clear view and headed back home to get to writing.
However, when I sat down to write, I seemed unable to get a handle on what I wanted to say. I was having trouble getting traction, and a couple of unexpected phone calls that required my attention interrupted what little bit of flow I did have going. I was about to cry uncle, and just punt for the week, when I received another phone call reminding me of an appointment I had scheduled for this morning that I had missed. It was an appointment that I had to handle today because of other contingencies. So, the appointment was quickly rescheduled for about an hour from now. At that moment, I knew my choice was to either give up on a new blog this week, or see if I had anything I could reprise.
Following an intuition, I decided to check to see what I had written at this time last year. What I found confirmed for me that divine order is in divine order…always and in all ways. One year ago today, I wrote an article titled “The Greatest Love Of All” for UCOH’s weekly blog. After reading it, I realized that I had already written a version of the article I was “trying” to write this morning with no luck.
As you will read in just a moment, one year ago, my morning started precisely like mine did this morning. Call it serendipity, synchronicity or what you will, but the MasterMind had not only heard my request this morning, but also had answered it in such a unique way that I am reminded once again how essential MasterMinding is in my life, and how everything is in perfect order, even when it seems like it’s not.
Below is that original article, just as it was written one year ago today. But before I get out of the way and let you read it, I just want to encourage anyone who is reading this article to seek out a MasterMind group to join, or start your own and seek out your partners. I can promise that not only will doing so change your life, it will do so in positive, beneficial ways you cannot even imagine. If you are in a MasterMind group already, then likely you already share my enthusiasm. I know my partners and I do, and we look forward each and every week to our time together when we go masterminding for joy. I wish each and every one of you joy throughout the holiday season, and also a heartfelt prayer that you too will know the joys of MasterMinding in your own life in 2018. Without further ado, immediately below is the article from one year ago today in its original form.
Peace,
Rick
The Greatest Love Of All
(Originally Published Dec. 9, 2016)
When I woke this morning, I had no idea what I was going to be writing about in this week’s blog entry. However, I don’t tend to be too concerned when this happens. As a creative person and a student of Unity teachings, I know that divine, inspired ideas are always available. There is never a lack of creative ideas and I know the day will present the perfect idea to me before I sit down to actually write. Today proved no exception.
MasterMinding My Way To Joy
When I left the house this morning to attend my weekly MasterMind group breakfast, it was 39 degrees and windy. It was the first day in this late to the party, Texas winter season cold enough to break out my long, wool winter coat. I don’t get enough opportunities to wear it and I love every chance. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of my partners showed up wearing his long, wool winter coat this morning also.
I am confident my three mastermind partners would each agree that our weekly meetings are like church on Thursday. We love our weekly breakfast gathering and routinely express our appreciation for one another and the gifts we each bring to one another’s lives. This group relationship is as important to our lives as any other relationships we experience anywhere with anyone. I have been a member for over eight years now, and I honestly could not imagine my life without these three men being constant sources of love, support and inspiration.
Each week we notice a dominant theme organically emerging from our discussions and requests. This morning, it was love. We talked of love in the communal, interdependent sense and in the codependent relationship sense. We talked of love as the opposite of fear. We talked of love’s power for healing and transformation. Perhaps most importantly, we talked of love in terms of self love as it relates to cultivating a spiritually vital consciousness, a creatively fertile mind and a physically healthy body.
There Is Love Between Us
Too often, we tend to forget the self love part. In my experience, this tendency does not just apply to men. I personally know, and have known, many women who are loving and nurturing to everyone else in their lives, but their own selves. The entire codependent recovery industry is built on healing this tendency to give ourselves away, and to bring ourselves back into balance with other more beneficial expressions of our power to love.
At one point in our conversation this morning, one of my partners offered an anecdote on the Irish view of love. He stated that instead of saying, “I love you,” which is a subject-verb-object construction, they often express love by saying, “there is love between us.” As a songwriter, I recognize a good hook when I hear it, and immediately stated my intention to write a song using that as a title. It also reminded me of the love between each one of us in our mastermind group. This love is active with a cumulative effect in our lives that becomes exponentially greater with each passing year.
Love Is The Harmonizing Power
In The Twelve Powers, Charles Fillmore describes love as the harmonizing power. Of the twelve powers, love is said to be the greatest of them all. I believe this to be true. At its fullest expression, the power of love heals and transforms all things, restoring our awareness of the foundational unity we share with everything, healing any sense of separation and transforming our consciousness into one of unity, safety and peace.
A Course In Miracles’ stated purpose is to help us to “remove the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence,” which implies that the power of love is always present and that it is only our misperception that limits us from seeing it. If we do not see it, we do not know it is available, and therefore do not call on it when needed, especially when it comes to self love. When this morning’s mastermind meeting was complete, my mind was swirling with ideas for this week’s blog, but I still wasn’t clear on the hook.
Love Is Always In Season
As I drove home, I turned my attention to the blog topic and began thinking about this Sunday being the third week of the Advent season. I remembered that my beautiful partner, Faith Davis, and I had been asked to light the Advent candles at the 11:25 service this coming Sunday. So, I decided to write something up about the Advent season.
When I got home, I settled in and prepared myself to write. Just as I did, Tammy Lorraine, UCOH’s Director of Communications, contacted me to discuss the topic. I told her I was thinking of writing about this Sunday’s Advent service. She stated that was a good idea, then directed me to Rev. Steve’s video bit on Sunday services for the weekly newsletter. Lo and behold, the title of Rev. Steve’s talk is “The Gift of Love” and the theme for this third week of Advent season is love.
I laughed out loud. It was perfect. I realized in that moment that the universe had me talking about love all morning to prepare me to write about it later. As I watched Rev. Steve’s video clip, I noted he referred to our unlimited capacity for self love and what a gift it is to our experience. He noted we have the capacity to express love beyond measure, to give and to receive. It could not have been more perfect and I look forward to hearing Rev. Steve’s thoughts on Sunday.
What Can I Say About Love?
What could be said about love requires more space than this modest blog entry allows. Poets, philosophers, sages, mystics and artists have been waxing eloquently about love for centuries. Over 80% of all popular hit songs are love songs of one sort or another, including one that reminds us that the greatest love of all is learning to love ourselves. As I complete this blog, I am doing so with a bit of a grin, as once again the universe has reaffirmed to me its infinite capacity to provide divine ideas of inspiration whenever we may need them, which, quite frankly, is every single day.
There is always love between us, binding us together in perfect unity for all time. In our limited sense consciousness we too often lose sight of this truth, placing blocks between us and the awareness of love’s presence, in the form of grievances, judgments, unforgiveness, feelings of unworthiness and a false sense of separation. In general, we are not encouraged to express self love, but rather, we are taught that to love others is the more noble expression.
Now, I am not knocking selfless, or altruistic forms of love. However, we can only give love to others in direct measure to the love we give to our own selves. The Golden Rule encourages us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, which is a great spiritual lesson. However, being challenged by the self love part contributes to the challenges we oftentimes experience when attempting to love our neighbor, or our brothers and sisters, or our fellow Americans.
So, in this Advent Season as we celebrate the spiritual gift of love, let us be cognizant that the love we give to ourselves is the love we give to others. If we want to expand that capacity in the coming year, resolve to do better at the self love part, and the rest will take care of itself naturally.
