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Fearless Faith
 In the Spirit of Fearless Faith, Harmonious Healing & Forward Facing Footsteps ~
Namaste Beloveds,
Happy July & August! Happy Summer! In summer, the song sings itself. ~William Carlos Williams
We hope this finds you summer singing! For us, July was a busy blur of foreclosure, fleas, fearless faith, moving, meditation, and more so this month's Little Thoughts newsletter is a 2 for 1 as we continue to pray and play with healing hearts full of faith. There is so much to say about all of it but we'll just briefly touch on a few highlights & their spiritual fruits as we face forward with our faith filled footsteps... Foreclosure. It seems to have become a fairly commom word these days in America as it seems everyone has at least heard of someone ~ or ones ~ going through it. For us ... what a long strange trip it's been as the song says ... Some of the logistics are mind boggling bureaucratic blindness but what truly matters from the spiritual perspective is how we ~ and mostly I as the adult in our family ~ embraced the opportunities for forgiveness, fortitude, lots of faith & eventual freedom .... Forgiveness is always such a deep foundation to peace ~ such a freeing force! We ended up moving just to the other side of our little town for many reasons and our beautiful new rental home turned up fleas ~ these unwelcome roommates made for more inner & outer work as well as moving delays but thankfully, the fleas fled and we did indeed make the move. The picture is of our first night's sunset in our new home taken from our deck ~ aah! There have been so many incredible opportunities to define and re-define integrity throughout this process ... let me say the range of justifications on leaving a foreclosure home in bad shape I heard coming at me ~ all with well intended advice was also mind ~ and heart ~ boggling! In the end, Do unto others is do unto others ... I listened to my own heart and worked really, really hard to leave an empty, sparkling clean house and home for the next family that finds their way there. In the middle of all of this has been God's grace filled guidance leading the way .... an incredible new healing practice for me found in our Harmonious Healing Harbors Happy Homes section as well as new insights on some age old adages .... read all about those in our Finding Freedom: Lessons Learned wrap up!
We also had our Feathers Of Faith Family Fun Camp July 28-Ag 1 in the sacred Sierras at Silver Lake. With lots of faith filled fun, beautiful families, phenomenal wildflowers, and some super surprises that yielded old & new found friends, it was indeed a blessed, blessed time! Read more about it in our Conscious Calendarizing section!
Jeremiah begins 5th grade on 8/18 and we will resume our 1.5 mile walk to school (just from the other end of town!). Currently we are East visiting his dad & grandparents 8/8-8/17 ~ following my 30 year high school class reunion on 8/7 ~ whew!! We returned to the Liberty Museum yesterday ~ the most incredible testimony to faith and freedom ... we again crossed the Bridge Of Forgiveness in deep gratitude for the gifts of life and of all the inspirational human beings there are and have been on this planet ~ Thank You God! And thank you, each of you reading this; for your interest and support in New Thought Families and our developing music & ministry. Read on & weigh in with our new survey! May we all mindfully continue forward in grateful freedom with fearless fortitude & faith filled footsteps ...
Visit the Liberty Museum & Heroes of Character Online! |
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 Faith Filled Fortitude
There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. ~ Celia Thaxter
Our onsite celebration this month & last is of Faith, Forgivness, Fortitude & Freedom reflected in our daily Play & Pray Calendars designed for faith-filled intergenerational fun! July's calendar featured a singing/speaking narrative with Jeremiah & I: Faces Of Freedom Play & Pray found here and our August calendar is a Faith Walk here. On our current home page; Ask In Faith is our featured music video and a link to our special Faith page. Our Joy Boy cartoon is Faith Filled Footsteps & is also available for free in the supersized ebook version.
Due to this webmaster's life schedule, our site has been treading water but there are still many dreams & schemes looking for ways & means for continued growth & service. We continue to pray & listen on how we can best serve who. We'd love to have your input! We invite you to take our anonymous online survey at Survey Monkey ~ help us here at New Thought Families .com with a reality check as well as creative contributions!
Take our online survey HERE!
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 Prayer Practice: Faith Filled Footsteps
I live in a house of prayer.
My body is temple, my Spirit centered there.
Love is my breath. I consciously connect.
I am Spirit aware; so much Love to share!
Anywhere, everywhere, I am a house of prayer ....
~ LaurieStory, Song: House Of Prayer
For this month's prayer, we offer some affirmative lyrics from one of our songs & a part of a poem as well as the familiar comfort & reminder of the FootPrints Prayer.
I prayed for direction & God sent Faith.
I told her I was lost finding my rightful place.
She didn't give me a map but she filled my feet
with a willingness to follow the path of peace.
Faith whispered to allow peace to breathe me;
in each breath it became easier and easier to see
shining clarity on God's path unfolding before me.
Together we whispered, "Walk faith, walk Faith."
From the poem God Sent Faith by Laurie Story Vela
And the familiar Footprints in the Sand:
One night I had a dream...
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and
Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand;
One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before us,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
There was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in my life
This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
You would walk with me all the way;
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
There is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why in times when I
needed you the most, you should leave me.
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious
child. I love you, and I would never,
never leave you during your times of
trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
Author: Margaret Fishback Powers © 1964
Hear & See House Of Prayer Music Video!
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Harmonious Healing Harbors Happy Homes
The antidote to frustration is a calm faith, not in your own cleverness, or in hard toil, but in God's guidance. ~Norman Vincent Peale
The greatest gift we can give our children is Love: God centered living from healthy, harmonious hearts creating safe & joyous homes. As important as conscious living is, the subconscious cellular memories within us can hold the keys to consciousness & healing and to allowing the free flow of our healing and conscious living. There are many wonderful healers, teachers & teachings gracing our healing journey these days. This summer, I have been engaged in a program so profound & positive, it is exciting to share it with you! Based on energy medicine, this is a gentle, feel good process you incorporate into your prayer & meditation practice. It gently and so effectively targets the destructive cellular memories that often run us subconsciously. Wow ~ we can change without pain ~ really! I have been so amazed and am excited to share this practice with Jeremiah when we settle into our new school routine. Surely in our children's lifetimes, they will see today's medical practices morph into this more integrated, Spirit centered way of healing and being. The particular practice I have been graced with is The Healing Codes by Dr.s Alex Loyd & Ben Johnson ~ you can get the book on Amazon linked below. The Healing Codes were a direct "download" from God combining quantum physics and the ancient teachings of the wise one Solomon who said that any problem or challenge could be traced to "issues of the heart." Deep healing & shifting occurs through activating the body's own healing mechanisms ... it is truly miraculous!
Get The Healing Code at Amazon
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 Events & Expressions:
Conscious Calendarizing!
Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. ~ Charles R. Swindoll
Our New Thought Families play & pray calendar has held beautiful circles of Love this summer! Read on for a brief Feathers Of Faith recap & note that our next free community service PlayShop will be in August: Trust What You Hear 8/21, 2:30-5:00 at the Motherlode Wholistic Center! We will play & pray in our intergenerational, interfaith gathering; singing, sharing, snacking, playing trust games & more! Our monthly PlayShops are designed to inspire and strengthen families in partnership with Sophia's Well Of Wisdom .
Our Feathers Of Faith Family Camp in the sacred Sierras was July 28-Ag 1. We were joined by families from Sophia's Well Of Wisdom & the Sutter Creek United Methodist Church. There was also a fabulously fun group from our old church, The Spiritual Life Center who were celebrating a 50th birthday .... they had found the camp through our Feathers 08 video and we were all there for variations of sacred & silly that beautifully flowed all weekend. Our intergenerational highlights included the wonderful waterful walk, singing & drumming, 3 Angel Washes or Angel Walks, and the birthday boy, Walter's super fun dance party in the lodge Saturday night! Stay fine tuned and we will have pictures & updates before month's end on our Feathers Of Faith page here.
We had 30 something in our group and Jeremiah and I were graced with 2 friends in our cabin ~ 10 year old girls ... I got to have 3 children instead of 1 for the weekend. What a difference! And a great blessing ~ Thank You God! I must share a bit more about the Angel Wash or Walk as it is my absolute favorite activity often reserved as a closer to the retreat ... this year our demographics were so varied, we had 3 washes on 3 consecutive mornings. Angels had been a theme with our young campers finding angels on their doorsteps as well as the colored feathers. A recurring message was how we can be angels for each other. In the Angel Wash or Walk, everyone forms 2 lines that face each other & each person takes a turn walking down with their eyes closed as the lines guide each person, each person in the line whispering something loving & affirmative in each ear going down the line. The process is definitely heart opening and doing it intergenerationally such a blessing .... leaning down for little voices ... I was graced with an easy to sing chant that we all sang as the process flowed:
You are an angel to me,
you open my eyes and help me to see
more and more of who I can be
You are an angel to me ...
I can still hear and see all those many angels "with skin on" ... aaahh! May your family's life be calendarized by angel affirming times of LOVE!
Check out our 2010 PlayShop offerings & schedule ~ Bring our PlayShops to YOU!
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 Finding Freedom: Lessons Learned
The family is the school of duties... founded on love. ~ Felix Adler
The newsletter has been coming along this week (& summer!) while travelling and we are currently at my friend Rosie's new beach house on the Jersey shore ~ wow! ~So blessed in Love! This is a wonderful place of Love, true testimony to "Home is where the heart is." In both the fun times and challenging times this summer, I have been reminded of so many simple teachings of life ... in the lessons and subsequent actions taken, there has been a deepening of forgiveness, faith & fortitude and the gift of freedom that follows! For foreclosure, I will simply say that "Truth is stranger than fiction" and "Virtue is its own reward." And the virtues found in moving ... so much to be found in the closets! I realized that somewhere along the line I had confused excess with abundance. They are absolutely not the same thing; less is more! In responsibly dealing with all my outer (& inner!) stuff, I realized that "A stitch in time saves nine" and that "Haste makes waste" in that not letting things pile up and get out of hand, saves you the impulse to just throw it all away when moving rather than taking the time to sort it out and put it in its proper place. I researched and found e waste options for instance, not the easiest but again, virtue is its own reward. And yes, it's true that "Out of sight, out of mind" and the deeper those pantry shelves the more out of mind I found myself!! My new motto on this start over phase of life is "Use it or lose it"! And yes, trust that whatever I need will absolutely show up when I need it! So here's hoping that your inner & outer closets are filled with faith & forgiveness and that you have absolute freedom in accessing them! Great blessings to you & yours this shimmering summer season! Namaste, Love, Namaste.
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