items of interest

with contributions from Oprah Winfrey, Susan L. Taylor, Caryle Murphy

LIGHT-BULB MOMENTS

"Recently, a woman asked me, 'What was the a-ha! lightbulb moment in your life?' I realized it was when I figured out that my thoughts control my whole life—that no matter what hand life deals me, I can always choose my response to it. We are each responsible for our lives and, more important, the thoughts that create them. If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think."

Oprah Winfrey
"Your Mind Defines Your Life"
O, The Oprah Magazine
September 2000

Change for the better is possible

"We have infinite power to change, to make our lives over if we choose. But we have to be disciplined, courageous and patient."

Susan L. Taylor
"In the spirit: A continuing journey"
Essence
September 2000

Breaking through the stained-glass ceiling

Last summer, Vashti Murphy McKenzie was elected the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Surrounded by well-wishers and people who had helped her campaign succeed, she based her first sermon after becoming a bishop on the Apostle Paul's warning against worshiping individual personalities instead of God (see I Cor. 3:6–7).

"If you come to church because you are worshiping a personality, you are dead wrong," said McKenzie. "God is not going to be concerned with who laid hands on you, who baptized you ... What He wants to know is: ... Do you love Me? Will you follow Me? ... [I]t's not [about] me. It's all about God!"

Reported by Caryle Murphy
The Washington Post
August 1, 2000

A universe of infinite consciousness

"I believe [the universe] is comprehensible because consciousness is its basis," writes Wayne Teasdale, Ph.D., author of The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions. "Often we hear reports of how pervasive intelligence is in nature and the cosmos, that it is at work on all levels, from the subatomic, quantum level, to the organic, natural, and cosmic levels. ... Is it that intelligence is in everything, or rather that everything is intelligent because everything is aware[?] I think it is the latter, and I believe that everything participates in a vast, universal system of consciousness, with other realms, reaching to the most ultimate, the Divine itself."

Dr. Teasdale's paper was part of the "Future Visions" dialogue at www.meta-list.org.

Giving students real power

"Most high school students grapple with the profound questions of loss, love, and letting go. Of meaning, purpose, and service. Of self-reliance and community, and of choice and surrender. How they respond to these questions—whether with love, denial, or even violence—can be profoundly influenced by the community of the classroom," writes Rachael Kessler, who has spent the last 15 years developing an approach to education called "The Passages Program," which integrates heart, spirit, and community with strong academics.

"Students who feel deeply connected don't need danger to feel fully alive," she says. "They don't need guns to feel powerful. They don't want to hurt others or themselves. Out of connection grows compassion and passion—passion for people, for students' goals and dreams, for life itself."

"Nourshing young souls in secular schools"
Spirituality & Health
Summer, 2000

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