Namaste Beloveds & thank you for being here!

Summer Sunshine Greetings this 7/11/11! Yes, June Father's Day, Graduation & Summer Solstice celebrations have slipped away as has another bursting 4th of July holiday. Our annual Feathers Of Faith Fun Family Camp was set for that weekend, to begin July 1 in the sacred Sierras, but this year, we were actually snowed out! Yes due to late snows & extra heavy snow fall this year, the camp was unable to dig out in time! And yes, timing is everything. The end of June had us back in the studio with the In Our Hands CD began in June 08, tried again June 09 & it really looks like this summer of 11 is IT?! We go back to the studio for final edit this week before leaving for a month to the East Coast. We are heading East mostly for Jeremiah to be with his dad & grandparents where will have a myriad of activities including a week at the Jersey shore. In the middle, Jeremiah & I will head out for a few days by ourselves and a few performances at libraries as well as a visit to the Unity church in Buffalo where we will give the talk & music with our big screen visuals. Trusting Transformation is the talk title and continues to be this summer’s theme on the home/travel front as well as here at the web home of New Thought Families. Read on for more about our transformational times & stay with us weekly on the Monday Mindful Matters blog. This summer edition of the News covering 3 months could be an indication of transformation to come but it is certainly indicative of the shifts in this summer's schedule. Still & all, we remain centered in service & grateful for all ~ even & especially as we trust this ongoing process of transformation ~ aka LIFE!

Prayer Practice

For this summer's prayer practice, we continue to give thanks every day! In our August focus of Gratitude & Grace, we are reminded that saying grace before meals is an act of centering in gratitude & allowing more of the flow of God's grace into our lives. As we look towards transformation, we trust that divine flow is always shaping us as water over stone. And as we step into service, we say yes to being that divine flow in action. We turn now to the supreme prayer of service from St. Francis Of Assisi...

Family Faith: Sacred Space

Our home spiritual practice for June was focussed on truth & transformation and as noted, it, as well as our home practice activity, is spanning the whole summer. Jeremiah & I are reading Tolle's A New Earth and like all of our practices, it really takes so much discipline & dedication! It has been great to look at our egos with open hearts through each others' eyes. For the month of July, our board (pictured above) holds our service records where we document each day how we've been in service and to who/what. These records will easily travel with us but whether home or travelling, all of our home spiritual practices, really do take that discipline & dedication but we feel the deepening Love such commitment brings! And awareness is the cornerstone to living a life in flow & walking that spiritual path. Our daily devotion keeps us so aware & open ~ and growing! We already give prayers of thanks in the morning, at night, before meals and throughout the day~! So in August, our practice will be to express our thanks in words & pictures on paper ... we'll utilize Gratitude Journals as we will be on the move the first half of the month and for Jeremiah, back in school the second half of the month! On the In Our Hands webpage, you can see videos & pictures of the current month's practices as well as follow links to each of the other months. Also on the In Our Hands webpage, our monthly Green Living segments are there as we share our awareness & actions for living in harmony & respect of our beautiful Mother Earth. Visit with us & let's all keep living green! You can also read about our awareness' in the weekly Monday Mindful Matters blog! As always, we'd love to hear from you; share with us your mindful moments, family spiritual practices & green living!

In Our Hands & Feet: In Service To All We Meet!

Interfaith Inspirations
We are looking at revising this section of the newsletter and we again thank the interfaithcalendar.org site for providing the outline for our (past) listings of celebrations. For this edition, we spotlight the Islamic tradition of Ramadan which this year begins August 1st and ends August 31st in a celebration called Eid. Like Christmas, Dewali and Hanukkah, Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid is for Muslims a joyous occasion that brings family and friends together; a day of thanksgiving to signify the successful completion of the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the Month Of the Holy Quran. Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar, which is based on the orbiting of the moon (lunar calendar), rather than the orbiting of the earth (solar calendar). It was in the month of Ramadan in which the Quran (Holy Book for Muslims) was first revealed. The most prominent event of this month is fasting. Muslims refrain from eating or drinking, from sun up to sun set during the month of Ramadan. Muslims around the world get up before dawn to eat sahur, the pre-dawn meal, then they perform the fajr prayer. They have to stop eating and drinking before the call for prayer starts until the fourth prayer of the day, called maghrib. Muslims may continue to eat and drink after the sun has set until the next morning's fajr prayer call. Then the process starts all over. Ramad ān is a time of reflecting and worshiping God. Muslims are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam and to avoid obscene and irreligious sights and sounds. Eid is a day of celebrating victory, a day of harvest, a day of forgiveness, reconciliations and a day of peace. After the Eid prayer, festivities observed include visits to the cemetery to remember the dead, visiting the sick & visiting relatives & friends where children exchange gifts with their families.