In This Issue:

Of The Father

Namaste Beloveds,
Happy Summer! Happy Solstice! Happy Father's Day! For this June edition, let's speak a bit to each of them as well as adding in a good dose of Christmas. Hugh?! Ya, our Winter Solstice Holiday of Holidays, Christmas, is on my mind and heart in an effort to better understand fathers and life purpose which is so illuminated in this, the sunniest time of year. Have you ever seen the movie, ELF? A hilarious comedy about a human raised by elves at the North Pole who one day discovers he is not an elf (he's 6'3") and goes off to meet his real father in New York City even though Santa tells him that his dad is on the naughty list. The elf, Buddy, lives by the Code Of Elves: 1. Treat every day like Christmas 2. There's room for everybody on the Nice List 3. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear. Ah, yes, Christmas. Can we treat these sunny summer days like Christmas? Can we view the good (the nice) in all we come in contact with? And singing loud for all to hear? It's just how I was raised ... not by elves but by a mother who saw the Sound Of Music one too many times and turned us into the Vela Family Singers. My dad? He did sing with us at some point after our "act" was well established. He was a bit reluctant and I don't remember him singing with cheer or loud for all to hear ... My dad was the strong, silent type and in fact, often gave the family what became termed as "The Silent Treatment". He would emotionally shut down and physically clam up. I remember the "Silent Treatment" lasting 4 days one time and I wondered if he would ever talk again. My dad is 82 now and talks a lot; sometimes I think he's trying to make up for lost time. And I, not surprisingly, have loved a few men in this life who gave me the silent treatment for a myriad of their own reasons leaving me to wonder how love and silence could be so paradoxical. Some years ago, I wrote a song entitled, "When Silence Has The Last Word". On the one hand, peace, God, Source, is best found and connected with in the silence. Then there's the other forms of silence that act in an opposite way - to disconnect - the silence between individuals and the silence that can be a form of oppression or denial for whole groups of people. The former gives me plenty of fodder for self healing while the latter currently calls to me in my work with children and spirituality... what I thought was a fairly simple desire to share music ministry and new thought principles with children and families has run up against a rather startling aha about Children's and Family Ministry across the board... for anyone interested, I have thoughts on this evolving awakening on the new site blog. It speaks to my own questioning of life purpose as well as what I view as a silent area crying out for voice. Summer Solstice speaks to the illumination of Life Purpose. It is celebrated around the world as a time of harvest. While Winter Solstice is a time of darkness and germination, a celebration of the slowly returning light, Summer Solstice is the opportunity to embrace the light in all its glory with every bit of truth illumined if we are ready and able to see it. Sometimes the harvest of our winter thoughts is less than the brilliance of which we are worthy and capable and yet if we fully embrace the light, we are given the gift of truth, whatever that is for us. At the heart of our truth, the core of our Life Purpose, is desire. In Latin, desire means "of the father". How many times have we prayed to the Father to deliver our desires? How often have we asked Santa, Father Christmas, to bring us our desires? And in the end, who has the power to truly manifest our desires? And is this power experienced differently for men & women, fathers and mothers? I do not pretend to understand men or fathers but I had a moment of feeling like a man this last week as a long thought of, dreaded task came into being with full power. I had my first go with a weed-eater, a "Grass Hog", to be exact. And for the first minute or so, I felt the exhilaration of power and a kinship to men and how they could truly desire a power tool as a (Father's Day) gift. I had resisted this weed eating experience to the nth degree, I was fearful, doubtful and generally unwilling but when I embraced it anyway, it was amazingly easy! A no brainer! And so many weeds were purposefully cleared. Jeremiah also loved it; there he was with his florescent orange swim goggles on, clearing the space with this power tool. A gift. A moment of kinship with what I truly do not understand but am open to - Christmas! The illumination of light is Christmas. Willingness is Christmas. Desires are Christmas ... desire ... of the Father ...

That Laurie Story sure does go on ... now a blog??!!

Weaving The Web - Pace Of Grace

Our New Thought Families web site is still very much in the weaving. There is more about this on the site's new Blog page. I am quaking a bit to be putting even more of my "Dear Diary" self out there in cyber space but wanting the connection. So do let me know if you're able to take the time to share any of these thoughts ... what do you think?! This last month, the New Thought Families site has been a bit on hold as I have been tending to my first web site, Laurie's Stories with a Super Summer Reading Program. Libraries in 41 states are using the "Get A Clue" Reading Theme so our program is "ABC Mystery". Rather than going with crimes and who done it, our weekly mini-mysteries are to guess what the treasure is and who has it. Gifts. Tune in on Mondays starting June 25th for 8 weeks of free Laurie Stor-E Books, interactive word play games and videos. Our first video is up and I foresee offering some excellent video experiences for New Thought Families down the cyber line ... Our Bounty of Books page has some new resources including one that has our own ABC's of Spirituality: Giving Voice To Virtues in the pace of grace mode of further incubation. Linda Kavelin Popov along with her husband and brother have studied all the world's religions and found at their core, virtues. Check them out along with Linda's newest book, A Pace Of Grace. Links are on our Books page to this awesome work: "The Virtues Project tm inspires the practice of virtues in everyday life by helping people of all cultures to discover the transformative power of these universal gifts of character. The virtues are spiritual life-skills that help us to live our best lives." -  Linda Kavelin Popov

Read More About Linda & Share In Our Bounty of Books!